BV 1520 
.T4 
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Class 1 S V- 152.Q 
Book T4 



Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



How to Conduct 
A Sunday-School 




By D. O. Teasley 



Gospel Trumpet Company 
Anderson, Ind., U. S. A. 



T&£ 



Copyright, 1911 

By 
D. 0. Teasley 



©CI.A332812 



PREFACE. 

This book is intended to contain in embryo 
the essential elements of success. Its objects 
are to stimulate systematic effort in the Sun- 
day-school and to encourage thoroughness in 
teaching. 

To some the book may seem too simple, to 
others too complicated; but this will depend 
somewhat upon the reader's view-point. To 
the experienced Sunday-school worker it may 
seem too elementary, but to the beginner, for 
whom it is primarily intended, it will doubt- 
less seem sufficiently advanced. 

There is a certain satisfaction in working 
out things for one's self. I have, therefore, 
presented the subject of this book in princi- 
ples, leaving the reader to apply them and to 
get results for himself. 

D. O. Teasley. 

Anderson, Ind., August 17, 1911. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction 



CHAPTEE I. 
Origin and History of the Sunday-school. — 15 

CHAPTER H. 
Organization and Government 29 

CHAPTEE in. 
Leaders of the School 49 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Pupil. 87 

CHAPTER V. 
The Lesson 101 

CHAPTER VI. 
Methods and Equipments 128 



INTRODUCTION. 

Purpose. The purpose of the Sunday-school 
is to teach the Word of God. The central 
theme of its teaching should be the great moral 
law of supreme love to God and equal love to 
men, the principle on which hung the law 
and the prophets and on which, also, is based 
the new covenant. 

While the purpose of the Sunday-school is 
to teach the old as well as the young, its 
primary object is to teach the young. The 
home is the beginning-place of religious educa- 
tion as well as of secular education, but it is 
the province of the Sunday-school to take up 
the more technical education of our children in 
religion and complete the education begun at 
home. In many instances it falls to the part 
of the Sunday-school to give to the child all 
the religious education it ever gets, for often 
religious education at home is neglected. 

The Sunday-school is the school of the 
church. As such it should teach the doctrine 
of the church, or the gospel of Jesus Christ. 



8 INTRODUCTION 

The Sunday-school, therefore, should teach the 
great fundamental truths of the creation, temp- 
tation, and fall of man; of the universal de- 
pravity of the human heart; and of the atone- 
ment of Jesus Christ, — presenting these truths 
in such ways as to make them comprehensible 
to the various grades. If the underlying truths 
of human redemption are presented in the right 
way, they may be comprehended by the child 
at a very early age. The great centers around 
which are grouped the doctrines of the Bible 
are God, man, Satan, sin, the Savior, and sal- 
vation. 

In a negative way it is the purpose of the 
Sunday-school to combat the powers of sin and 
to counteract the evil influences of pride in the 
world and in the hearts of the young. Satan 
is ever ready to lead the young hearts astray, 
and the Sunday-school, with the church, 
should wage relentless war against the en- 
croaching powers of evil and plant in the 
hearts and minds of the young the precious seed 
of the kingdom of God. 

First, last, and always, it is the purpose of 



INTRODUCTION 9 

the Sunday-school to lead the soul to Christ, 
and hence every lesson, from the infant class 
to the highest grade, should point to Christ as 
the central theme and as the Saivor of the 
world. 

Importance of the Sunday-school. The im- 
portance of the Sunday-school can be esti- 
mated only in the light of its high purpose 
and by its marvelous achievements in the past. 
Every man and every woman whose privilege 
it has been in childhood to attend a well-con- 
ducted Sunday-school has but to consult his 
or her own experience in order to realize the 
vast importance and the inestimable value of 
the Sunday-school. 

Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way 
he should go: and when he is old, he will not 
depart from it." Prov. 22 : 6. This text 
has, by many, been restricted to home training; 
but in the margin of our Authorized Version 
it is rendered, "Catechise a child in the way 
he should go." Like Jewish parents, we should 
not merely tell the child to do this and not to 
do that, that this is right and that is wrong; 



10 INTRODUCTION 

but we should catechise it in the principles and 
the precepts of religion. With a Hebrew, re- 
ligious ceremony begins at birth and never ends 
until death, and no people have ever clung with 
more tenacity to the principles of their religion 
than have the Jews. Though often backslid- 
den, they would remember, in their oppression, 
the Holy One of Israel, and even when sur- 
rounded by the magnificence and splendor of 
wealthy Babylon, they remembered Zion. 

One of the strongest reasons for early re- 
ligious training is that the things learned in 
childhood stay with us the longest. Older peo- 
ple may learn a lesson today and forget it to- 
morrow, but many of the lessons of childhood 
are never erased from the memory. Little 
sentences and striking lessons learned in the 
Sunday-school have followed many a man 
through all the trying scenes and vicissitudes of 
life and have protected his honor and strength- 
ened his soul when men and devils would have 
cast him down, and, following him still, have 
shed a ray of light upon his mind and soul when 
he entered the shadows of death. 



INTRODUCTION 1 1 

The Success of Roman Catholicism. It is 
a well-known fact that the success attained by 
Roman Catholics is accomplished through the 
training of children. Catholics are often 
quoted as saying, "Give me a child until it 
is seven years old, and ever after it will be 
a Catholic." The fact that comparative few 
who are indoctrinated in Catholicism escape 
the deception seems to verify the statement. 
Not only do they teach their own children, 
but they teach every child within their reach. 
The adherents of Rome outnumber the ad- 
herents of any other so-called Christian church. 
How is their membership obtained? By great 
revivals wherein thousands are converted? No, 
but from the children that have been taught in 
their youth that the Holy Catholic Church 
is the church founded by Jesus Christ and per- 
petuated by his apostles and their successors. 
The Church of Rome has never forgotten a 
sad lesson she learned in a critical hour of her 
history, when the power of the reformation 
broke in upon her and found her adherents 
in ignorance. The Roman Catholics of today 



12 INTRODUCTION 

are therefore very diligent in instructing the 
young, not in the Holy Scriptures, but in the 
doctrines of the Romish church. 

The words of a Roman Catholic priest to 
a bishop of a Protestant Episcopal church is 
an expression of the Catholic attitude toward 
the training of children. "What a poor, fool- 
ish people are you Protestants! You leave 
the children, until they are grown up, pos- 
sessed of the devil; then you go at the work 
of reclaiming them with horse, foot, and dra- 
goons. We Catholics, on the other hand, know 
that the children are as plastic as clay in our 
hands, and we quietly devote ourselves first to 
them. When they are well instructed and 
trained, we have little fear as to their future." 
May we not from this learn a lesson of dili- 
gence and be more zealous in teaching the 
young? 

The Young Heart a Fertile Soil The 
hearts of the young are a vast and fertile field 
in which something must grow. This vast 
field lies open to us today and invites us to 
sow the good seed of the kingdom of God and 



INTRODUCTION 13 

reap a hundred fold. If we do not grasp the 
opportunity, Satan will. He will sow the evil 
seeds of pride, of malice, of greed, and of 
lust where we ought to sow the precious seed 
of the kingdom of God — love, joy, and peace. 
The children of today will be either the way- 
ward boys and girls of tomorrow or the de- 
voted young worshipers at the shrine of holy 
love. Which shall be? Our neglect or our 
Sunday-school will answer the question. 



HOW TO CONDUCT 
A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

Name. The name Sunday-school has come 
to be almost universally applied to these re- 
ligious schools of the Christian church which, 
on account of convenience, are held on Sun- 
day. The name is derived, therefore, from 
the day on which Christians meet to teach 
the Bible, and not from the nature of the in- 
stitution. Some have adopted the name Bible- 
school, which in some respects is preferable. 
Since, however, Sunday-school is more widely 
used, it will be employed throughout this course 
of lessons. 

Definition. Many definitions of the Sun- 
day-school have been given. One author de- 
fines is as "the Bible-study and Bible-teach- 
ing service of the church." Another author 



16 HOW TO CONDUCT 

definies it thus: "The Sunday-school is a de- 
partment of the church of Christ, in which the 
Word of Christ is taught for the purpose of 
bringing souls to Christ and of building up 
souls in Christ." 

There are two distinctive methods of get- 
ting the gospel to the world; that is, preaching 
and teaching. Probably the simplest way of 
denning the difference between the two is to 
say that preaching is a continuous discourse, 
in which only the speaker, or preacher, speaks 
and others listen, and that teaching admits of 
questions and answers, in which both the 
teacher and the scholar may freely take part. 
The simplest definition of the Sunday-school, 
therefore, is, the teaching or school depart- 
ment of the church. 

Origin. The Sunday-school is not, as is 
often supposed, entirely a modern institution. 
From a very remote period the subject of re- 
ligious education has engaged the earnest at- 
tention of thoughtful minds. The nucleus of 
the Sunday-school is found in the Jewish re- 
ligion. Long before there were any schools 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 17 

in the strict sense of the word, we discover a 
diligence among the people of God to teach 
their children the principles of true religion. 
Abraham was commended and chosen because 
he would teach his children the law of God 
(Gen. 18: 19). It is very probable that Abra- 
ham's 318 trained servants (Gen. 14: 14) 
were not only trained in the handling of the 
sword but also instructed in religion. Moses 
commanded the Israelites to teach their chil- 
dren diligently in the law of the Lord (Deut. 
6: 6-9). EJisha established schools for proph- 
ets, and Jehoshaphat sent princes, priests, and 
Levites to teach the people the things of the 
Lord (2 Chron. 17: 7-9). Nehemiah was 
diligent in teaching the people the law of their 
God after the return from the Babylonian cap- 
tivity (Neh. 8: 1-8). In the later Jewish 
writings outside of the Bible frequent mention 
is made of schools which were maintained for 
instruction in the Scriptures. The scribes, or 
men of the Book, made it the sole purpose of 
their lives to interpret and transcribe the law, 
so as to bring it within the reach of the people. 



18 HOW TO CONDUCT 

Attached to almost every synagogue was a 
school devoted especially to religious learn- 
ing. In different ages these schools were con- 
ducted very differently. The teaching in some 
of them was extremely mechanical, since the 
schools did almost everything by rote; but 
many improvements were made from time to 
time in these Jewish schools. Down to our 
own time the Hebrew people are strong advo- 
cates of religious education. 

ChrisU the Great Teacher. Nicodemus 
said to Christ, "We know that thou art a 
teacher come from God." The followers of 
Christ were called disciples, or learners, and 
Christ, the Great Teacher, and his twelve apos- 
tles and other disciples, formed the first great 
Bible-school of the church of God. 

As we might naturally suppose from his 
Jewish teaching, Jesus taught as well as 
preached. In the Gospels he is repeatedly 
represented as both preaching and teaching. 
Matthew says, "Jesus went about in all Gali- 
lee teaching in their synagogues, and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom." Matt. 4: 23. By 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 19 

preaching is meant the heralding of a message, 
while by teaching is meant that form of instruc- 
tion which admits of the free interlocutory play 
between teacher and pupil. Throughout the 
four Gospels Jesus is represented as pursuing 
his work of teaching wherever he might be. 
We see him teaching by the wayside (Mark 
6: 16, 34; 10: 1; Luke 13:22; John 4: 1- 
42), by the sea (Mark 2: 13; 4: 1, 2), in 
private houses (Matt. 13:36; Mark 9:33- 
50; Luke 37:36-58), in the temple court 
(Matt. 21 : 23, 24; Mark 12: 35; Luke 19: 
4-7; John 7: 14), and in the synagogue (Matt. 
13:54; Mark 6:2; Luke 4: 15; John 6: 
59). In instances too numerous to mention, 
we find Jesus teaching after the manner of 
the Jews, both asking them questions and an- 
swering the numerous questions brought to him, 
especially by the Scribes and Pharisees. 

Busy as he was, Jesus found time to give 
attention to children. At one time when chil- 
dren were brought to him, his disciples would 
have turned them away lest they should trouble 
the Master; "but Jesus said, Suffer little chil- 



20 HOW TO CONDUCT 

dren, and forbid them not, to come unto me: 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 
19: 14. 

Jesus trained his twelve disciples to teach 
and commanded them thus : "Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations"; "Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature." 

Religious Training in the Early Church. 
From its earliest existence the Christian church 
took an intense and active interest in the educa- 
tion both of its own members and of all within 
its reach. Following the commands and the 
example of their Master, the apostles preached 
and taught in the Jewish synagogues and in 
private houses. For the first few years their 
work was exclusively among the Jews and 
their principal places of worship were the syna- 
gogues. We read concerning Peter and the 
other apostles in Jerusalem, that "daily in the 
temple, and in every house, they ceased not 
to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Acts 5 : 42. 

"Paul also and Barnabas continued in An- 
tioch, teaching and preaching the word of the 
Lord, with many others also." Acts 1 5 : 35. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 21 

Paul had been a scholar in the Beth-ha- 
midrash ; he had been brought up at the feet of 
Gamaliel. Being schooled in the teaching- 
methods of the Jewish Bible-schools, he was 
frequently found in the synaguges preaching 
and teaching the gospel of Christ. "Now 
when they had passed through Amphipolis and 
Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where 
was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as 
his manner was, went in unto them, and three 
Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the 
Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ 
must needs have suffered, and risen again from 
the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach 
unto you, is Christ. And some of them be- 
lieved, and consorted with Paul and Silas; 
and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, 
and of the chief women not a few." Acts 1 7: 
1-4. At Athens, Paul "reasoned in the syna- 
gogue with the Jews and the devout persons." 
And he "disputed" not only in the synagogue 
but also "in the market daily, with them that 
met with him." 

In the foregoing texts and in many others 



22 HOW TO CONDUCT 

too numerous to cite here, we find the apostles 
preaching and teaching in the synagogues of 
the Jews. When the Jews rejected the gos- 
pel, and began to persecute its advocates, the 
apostles and other Christians gathered them- 
selves from the Jewish synagogues. Thus was 
formed the first congregation at Rome. "And 
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired 
house, and received all that came in unto him, 
preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus 
Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding 
him." Acts 28: 30, 31. 

The teacher was a recognized worker in 
the apostolic church, and he was exhorted to 
give attention to his work (Rom. 12: 7). 
Among the other qualifications of a bishop was 
that he be "apt to teach" (1 Tim. 3:2). 
While every bishop was required to possess 
an aptitude to teach, it nevertheless appears 
from Eph. 4:11 and Rom. 12: 7 that there 
were other teachers besides the "ministers and 
pastors," whose duty it was to "wait on their 
teaching." 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 23 

It is significant that children are specifically 
included in the number of those to whom the 
apostolic epistles were written (Eph. 6:1; 
Col. 3: 20; 2 John 1). 

Thus we see that the Bible-schools, like so 
many other good things of the Jewish religion, 
were, in a modified form, brought over to the 
New Testament church. 

Religious Education; and the Sixteenth 
Century Reformation. At the time of the Six- 
teenth Century Reformation great ignorance 
prevailed among the common people. Rome 
had neglected to teach the people the Holy 
Scriptures. With the Reformation came a 
great revival of learning, both secular and re- 
ligious. The religious instruction, however, 
soon retrograded into polemic discussion of theo- 
logical doctrines and therefore in a great meas- 
ure failed to take the place of the Sunday- 
school of the early church. Unfortunately, 
the great spiritual revival of the sixteenth cen- 
tury gleamed with the rays of divine light and 
surged with Christian zeal and piety against 
the error of the world but for a short time; for, 



24 HOW TO CONDUCT 

despite the occasional checks by religious re- 
vivals, morals and spiritual power continued 
to decline until the latter part of the eighteenth 
century. Beginning with the dissensions that 
arose between the reformers on the one hand, 
and with the fury of the wounded beast of 
Catholicism on the other hand, slowly but 
surely the moral decay, religious dissensions, 
and the power of infidelity went on until the 
gathering storm broke in volcanic outbursts in 
the French Revolution and the accompanying 
upheavals in the moral and religious world. A 
German historian, Kurtz, characterizes the ra- 
tionalistic cyclone which burst upon his coun- 
try at this period as "the years of spiritual 
famine." 

In America the last quarter of the eighteenth 
century exhibits a state of morality not less 
deplorable than that in Europe. This unset- 
tled state of affairs finally led to the French 
and Indian War and to the Revolutionary 
War with their usual depraving influences ; and 
the infusion of European skepticism and man- 
ners brought on a sad state of morals. The 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 25 

revivals of such men as Edwards and White- 
field, however, were a great blessing to the 
Colonial churches and communities, serving 
for a time to check the spread of immorality. 
Concerning the period following the Revolu- 
tionary War, Rev. Thomas Williams — cited 
in "Yale Lectures on the Sunday- school" — 
makes the following comment: "The scenes 
and events which arose after the establishment 
of our national independence, in this country, 
in the church of God on earth, and among the 
nations of the world, during his [Dr. Em- 
mon's] ministry, were the most astonishing that 
have occurred in the records of uninspired his- 
tory. In his day, the conspiracy of infidels and 
atheists against religion, government and hu- 
manity, against truth and peace, order and lib- 
erty, shook the foundations of kingdoms and 
nations; and attempted to destroy from the 
earth the church and kingdom of God, and 
the name and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
The Modern Sunday-school. Amidst the 
confusion, wars, and moral decline, the Sun- 
day-school and the religious training of the 



26 HOW TO CONDUCT 

young were much neglected, though in spite of 
the spirit of the times a few such men as Zin- 
zendorf in Germany and Wesley in England 
gave some attention to a form of Sunday-school 
work. The origin of the modern Sunday- 
school, however, dates from the time of Robert 
Raikes; the editor and proprietor of a journal 
in Gloucester, England. In July, 1 780, Mr. 
Raikes, who had already taken an active inter- 
est in prison reform work, gathered the poorer 
children from the manufacturing quarter of 
Gloucester into the private house of a Mr. 
King to receive instruction in reading and the 
elementary truths of religion. For teachers 
he employed four women, paying them a shil- 
ling (twenty-five cents) a day. Thus was 
formed the nucleus of what today we call 
the modern Sunday-school, in which thousands 
of children in all Christian lands and in many 
mission fields are studying the Holy Scriptures. 
Though many conflicting doctrines and opin- 
ions are prevalent in Sunday-schools, and 
though the children are taught the peculiar doc- 
trines of the various churches, yet we can not 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 27 

give this as an objection to the Sunday-school 
itself. As well might we conclude that there 
is no true divine organization governing the 
church of God because there are so many sects 
and schisms. 

The Sunday-school, like the church of God 
and many other things that have been ordained 
of God, had a lowly beginning. Mr. Raikes 
and his school were referred to as "Bobby 
Wild-goose and his regiment." Nevertheless, 
his work met with popular favor, and in a few 
years thousands of children were attending 
Sunday-school throughout Great Britain. 

The beginning of the Sunday-school in 
America is not so distinctly marked. 

The International Sunday-school Lessons. 
The international lesson system was formally 
inaugurated in 1873 by an undenominational 
assemblage of Sunday-school workers in a na- 
tional convention for the United States of 
America. The plan was later approved by 
Sunday-school workers in both Canada and 
England. Like many other good things, the 
plan, when first introduced, met with consid- 



28 HOW TO CONDUCT 

erable opposition; but it has gradually gained 
in favor until at the present time it is almost 
universally accepted. The Episcopalians are 
the principal denomination that has not fully 
adopted the system. 

The International Sunday-school system lays 
out a plan whereby the entire Bible is studied 
in the course of seven years. This system has 
nothing to do with the interpretation of the text ; 
it is simply a plan agreed upon whereby the 
same portions of Scripture are studied on the 
same day by all who adopt the system, each de- 
nomination being left to publish its own lesson 
commentaries, lesson helps, and other Sunday- 
school literature. 

The International Sunday-school Committee 
consists of fifteen persons. Their main work 
is to select from the Bible and arrange a system 
of Sunday-school lessons. They have nothing 
to do with Biblical interpretation or with the 
government of Sunday-schools. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 29 

CHAPTER II. 

ORGANIZATION AND 
GOVERNMENT. 

I. ORGANIZATION CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 

Importance. No undertaking in which sev- 
eral persons are engaged can be well accom- 
plished without some form of organization. Or- 
ganization, however, does not create power; 
hence the power of the Sunday-school does 
not lie in its organization; the power lies in 
the energy and the diligence of its workers. 
But organization does centralize, direct, and 
focalize energy; above all, it unifies effort. 
Without organization, therefore, any attempt 
at conducting a Sunday-school will, for lack 
of united effort, fail of any great degree of 
success. 

In the Sunday-school, as in all other things, 
there are two extremes — lack of organization 
and too complicated an organization. No rules, 
except most general ones, can be laid down for 
the organization of a school. Conditions vary 



30 HOW TO CONDUCT 

so widely — from the large city school of several 
hundred members, with convenient meeting- 
rooms, to the rural school, with ten or twelve 
scholars and only one small room in which to 
meet — that the rules here laid down will, in 
many instances, have to be considerably modi- 
fied. 

Not the Organization of the Church. The 
organization of the Sunday-school is not the 
organization of the church. Though the inter- 
ests of the Sunday-school are similar to those 
of the church in the sense that both organiza- 
tions strive to teach the Bible and to save souls, 
yet there is a wide distinction in their organiza- 
tion and government. The church is a divine 
organization, and its membership is composed 
only of those who have salvation. The Sun- 
day-school, on the contrary, is a human organi- 
zation for a divine purpose, and its member- 
ship includes all who wish to know the truth, 
whether they are saved or unsaved. Just as 
we organize and incorporate a body of trustees 
to attend to the financial interests of the church, 
so we organize a Sunday-school to attend to 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 31 

the teaching interests of the church. Probably 
no one would think of confounding a body of 
trustees organized to hold property for the 
church with the church itself, nor think of such 
an organization, if rightly conducted, interfer- 
ing in any way with the organization and the 
government of the church. No more should 
the Sunday-school be confounded with the 
church nor with its organization and govern- 
ment. If rightly conducted, the Sunday- 
school will in no way interfere with the divine 
organization and government of the church. 
The board of trustees, or a local organization 
for the purpose of holding church property, is 
a human expediency instituted for a divine 
purpose; such, also, is the organization of the 
Sunday-school. 

Not a Sectarian Principle. The organiza- 
tion of a Sunday-school does not make a sect. 
Though varied in the extent of its organization 
and in the method of its government in differ- 
ent periods of its history, the Christian church 
in all ages has employed methods of teaching 
similar in some respects to those of what we 



32 HOW TO CONDUCT 

call the Sunday-school. The Sunday-school, 
therefore, is not the invention of any sect, but 
is the birth-right of the church of God. Each 
denomination adheres to peculiar doctrines and 
tenets of its own, which distinguish it from all 
other denominations and from the body of 
Christ. Such doctrines and tenets are sectarian 
principles. There are certain institutions, how- 
ever, among them the Sunday-school, which 
are common to the Christian church. These 
belong to Christianity, and not to any one sect ; 
and whatever belongs to Christ or to Chris- 
tianity we are justifiable in employing, regard- 
less of what others may or may not do. 

Not the Formation of a Sect. Inasmuch as 
the Sunday-school is not sectarian in its nature, 
the organizing of such a school is not the form- 
ing of a sect. A sect means a section, or a 
part cut off and separated from the whole. A 
sect excludes from its membership those who 
do not conform to the system of doctrine it 
prescribes. A Sunday-school is quite different ; 
it does not exclude from its membership any 
who wish to know more about God and the 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 33 

Bible, whether saints or sinners. Conversion, 
or salvation from sin, is necessary to church 
membership ; only a desire to learn is necessary 
to Sunday-school membership. Since, there- 
fore, the Sunday-school neither takes the place 
of the church nor interferes with it, and since 
the Sunday-school does not require prescribing 
to a creed, does not create a faction, does not 
exclude from its membership any one who de- 
sires to learn, whether saint or sinner, it can not 
be said to be in any sense a sect. It is not the 
church, but the work of Christian people; and 
in order to be successful as such it must be or- 
ganized. In fact, there can be no Sunday- 
school without some form of organization; for 
as soon as we have classes and teachers, we 
have organization. 

Extent of Organization. The extent of or- 
ganization in any case depends upon the work 
to be done. The lower and less active forms 
of animal life, for instance, are much less com- 
plicated in their organism than are the higher 
forms. An amoeba, for example, is only a 
lump of jelly about one one-thousandth of an 



34 HOW TO CONDUCT 

inch in diameter; yet it moves, eats, grows, and 
reproduces itself. It goes about in its home 
of stagnant water until it finds a particle of 
food, and then it wraps itself around it about 
as a baker rolls a mass of dough around a raisin. 
After assimilating whatever of the food it can, 
it unwraps itself from the waste. There is a 
vast difference between the needs, activities, and 
accomplishments of the amoeba and those of 
the highly organized animal we call man. The 
amoeba has no need of legs, arms, mouth, eyes, 
ears, and the various other organs of the hu- 
man body. Hence they have not been given 
to it. God has followed this law throughout 
all nature; he gives to each living thing just the 
amount of organism required to accomplish the 
work it is expected to do and to fill the office 
it is expected to fill. The ideal of perfection 
in organism, then, is just enough organs to do 
the work, no more and no less. 

An amoeba can not be expected to do the 
work of a man, so a Sunday-school under-or- 
ganized, without the proper division of classes, 
without the necessary officers to attend to the 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 35 

church interests of the school, can not be ex- 
pected to accomplish as much as a Sunday- 
school well organized. But too much organiza- 
tion, or more than is required by the number of 
scholars and the work to be accomplished, is 
quite as objectionable as too little. There 
should be sufficient to serve effectually the ac- 
tual needs of the school ; but when the organiza- 
tion becomes so complicated that so far in ex- 
cess of the needs of the school that the officers, 
teachers, and pupils become the servants of 
the organization instead of its being the servant 
of the school, there is a decided need for a 
simpler form of organization. By the exer- 
cise of sound judgment the leaders of the school 
should be able readily to determine the extent 
of organization required to make their efforts 
most successful. 

II. ORGANIZATION DEFINED. 

Simply stated, to organize is to supply with 
organs and to set in order, so that the various 
parts may act as one body. To organize means 
to systematize; to set into working order; to 



36 HOW TO CONDUCT 

arrange or constitute the parts of a whole so 
that each will have a special function, office, or 
relation. In the organization of the Sunday- 
school there are two classes of members: the 
leaders and the scholars. Each of these 
classes of members is in turn divided according 
to their respective duties and positions in the 
school. We shall consider first the leaders of 
the Sunday-school and their offices; secondly, 
the scholars of the Sunday-school and their di- 
vision into departments. 

OFFICES OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

Leaders of the Sunday-school. In this place 
we shall merely mention the necessary officers, 
leaving to a future lesson the consideration of 
their qualifications and duties. 

The Pastor. The Sunday-school being the 
work of the church, the pastor should be closely 
associated with the leaders of the school and 
with its work, and should have a voice in its 
control and government. Where the size of 
the congregation is not too large and the pas- 
tor's duties are not too many, it will be found 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 37 

advantageous for the pastor to fill the office of 
superintendent. 

The Superintendent. Every institution or 
undertaking that hopes for success must have 
a head, must have some one who is responsible 
for the work and for its perpetuation. What 
is everybody's business is nobody's business, 
and that for which nobody is responsible, is 
sure to be neglected. It is therefore necessary 
to the success of the Sunday-school that it have 
a superintendent. 

Assistant Superintendent. Whether the 
school is large or small, but especially if it is 
large, an assistant superintendent is necessary. 
An ever-ready assistant superintendent may of- 
ten avoid much delay and confusion on occa- 
sions when the superintendent is unexpectedly 
absent. In a large school the assistant superin- 
tendent can be a constant help and assistance to 
the superintendent in conducting the school. 

Department Superintendents. In very large 
schools it is sometimes necessary to have a 
superintendent in each department. These dif- 
ferent superintendents act in their respective de- 



38 HOW TO CONDUCT 

partments as assistants to the general superin- 
tendent. 

Superintendent on Classification. In large 
schools where new scholars are constantly com- 
ing in it is sometimes necessary to have a super- 
intendent on classification. His duties are to as- 
sign each visitor or new scholar to the proper 
class and to see that the scholars in the several 
classes are duly promoted. Ordinarily this 
work can be done by the general superin- 
tendent. 

Secretary. Every school should have a sec- 
retary to keep the records of the school. 

Treasurer. Every school should have a 
treasurer to attend to the financial business. 

Librarian. A well-filled library of good 
books will be found a valuable help to any Sun- 
day-school, and a librarian is necessary to the 
practical success of the library. In some in- 
stances the secretary can act as librarian, and 
in small schools one person can often do the 
work of secretary, treasurer, and librarian. 

Teachers. Well-qualified and spiritual- 
minded teachers are among the most important 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 39 

necessities of a good Sunday-school. There 
should be as many in each department as the 
number of scholars requires. Ordinarily each 
teacher should have from twelve to twenty-five 
scholars. 

DEPARTMENTS. 

There are usually four general departments 
to be recognized in the organization of the 
Sunday-school. These departments are in 
turn divided into classes according to the age 
and development of the pupils. These four 
general departments are the primary, the jun- 
ior, the intermediate, and the senior. The pri- 
mary includes all pupils under nine years of 
age; the junior, all from nine to twelve, in- 
clusive; the intermediate, all from thirteen to 
sixteen, inclusive; the senior, all over sixteen. 
However small the school, unless all the pupils 
are of nearly the same age, a division into de- 
partments and classes according to age is nec- 
essary to success. The whole school, of course, 
if not too large, could be made one class and 
be taught by one teacher ; but the disadvantages 
of such a method are too well known to need 



40 HOW TO CONDUCT 

extended comment. What would interest the 
adult mind would be too advanced for the 
younger minds, and what would be elementary 
enough for the younger ones would be too ele- 
mentary to interest the adults. Hence the nec- 
essity of departments and gradation. 

GRADATION. 

Gradation is the further division of each de- 
partment into classes according to the pupils' 
ages and extent of literary education. 

/. Primary Department. In grading the 
primary department, two classes are ordinarily 
recognized: the beginners' class and the pri- 
mary class. 

1. The beginners' class should include all 
children under five years of age who attend the 
school. 

2. The primary class proper is the repre- 
sentative class of this department and should 
include all children from five to eight years of 
age, inclusive. In a large school it may be 
found advantageous to divide this class, one 
teacher taking the boys and another the girls. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 41 

Where the number of scholars and teachers 
will permit, the primary class may be divided 
into first, second, third, and fourth years, with 
a teacher for each year; in which case the 
scholars should be promoted from year to year 
according to their ages. Sometimes it will be 
found necessary to promote children before 
the end of the year on account of their apti- 
tude, and in other cases it may be found nec- 
essary to retain children in the primary depart- 
ment after they have reached the age of nine. 

The cradle roll, or the infant class, includ- 
ing all children too young to attend the meet- 
ings of the Sunday-school, is sometimes recog- 
nized. Their names appear on the cradle roll, 
which is commonly framed and hung up in the 
beginners' room. Whenever gifts are made 
to the children, one is sent to each member of 
this class. The cradle-roll plan is only a mat- 
ter of form and may be omitted entirely. Only 
those who are of sufficient age to attend the 
meetings of the school belong to the Sunday- 
school proper. 

//. Junior Department The only classi- 



42 HOW TO CONDUCT 

fication ordinarily required in the junior depart- 
ment is first, second, third, and fourth years, 
or boys' and girls' classes. In small schools the 
entire department may be formed into one class 
and placed under one teacher. 

///. Intermediate Department In the inter- 
mediate department, as in the junior depart- 
ment, the classification into first, second, third, 
and fourth years, or into boys' and girls' classes, 
according to the particular needs of the school, 
will be found to be all that is necessary. 

IV. Senior Department. In the Senior De- 
partment we will make the following classes: 
first, senior class proper; second, adult, or Bi- 
ble, class ; third, teachers' training-class ; fourth, 
advance class. 

1 . The senior class proper embraces all pu- 
pils between seventeen and twenty years, in- 
clusive. It may be advantageously divided into 
two classes: one for the boys and one for the 
girls. In smaller schools the senior class may 
include the adult or Bible class, or all above 
sixteen years of age. 

2. The adult class should consist of men 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 43 

and women above twenty years of age, who 
may be divided into two classes, one for the 
men and one for the women ; or they may study 
together in one class. 

3. The teachers' training class should be 
composed of young people. Instead of, or in 
addition to, the regular lesson, they should 
study a teachers' training course, or normal in- 
structions, so that in due time they may take 
their places as teachers in the Sunday-school. 

4. The advance class should study the les- 
son a week in advance of the rest of the classes. 
Then when, on account of illness or other cir- 
cumstances, a regular teacher is hindered from 
taking his class, the advance class will always 
be ready with a substitute. 

GOVERNMENT. 

To lay down an invariable rule or to make a 
distribution of authority that would be univer- 
sally applicable is impossible. The needs of the 
school, the competency of its officers and teach- 
ers, and the good judgment of the whole school, 
must decide in each instance the particulars of 



44 HOW TO CONDUCT 

how it is to be governed. The Sunday-school 
should by all means be governed by Christian 
men and women and by those whose doctrines 
are in harmony with the Bible. Unsaved per- 
sons should be encouraged to attend the school, 
to study the Bible, and to accept Christ; but 
unless they do accept Christ, they should not 
be invited to take part in the government of 
the Sunday-school. Neither should even those 
who profess to accept Christ but whose doc- 
trines are yet out of harmony with the Bible 
be allowed a voice in the government of the 
Sunday-school. 

The superintendent is the chief executive of 
the Sunday-school. The assistant superin- 
tendent, the secretary, the teachers, and 
the other officers of the Sunday-school are his 
cabinet or advisers. The pastor, and finally 
the church, should have a voice in the govern- 
ment. 

In Sunday-school work, as in all other work, 
"united, we stand, divided, we fall." Unity 
in the government of the school is therefore in- 
dispensable. Differences and contentions be- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 45 

tween church and Sunday-school, between 
superintendent and pastor, or between the dif- 
ferent officers and members of the Sunday- 
school, are made possible only by a lack of 
humility and of sanctified judgment. "Only by 
pride cometh contention." In the Sunday- 
school, therefore, as in church government, suc- 
cess is dependent upon humility of heart, long- 
suffering, and forbearance. 

MANNER OF APPOINTING OFFICERS AND 
TEACHERS. 

The superintendent of the Sunday-school 
holds a place second in importance only to 
that of a pastor. It would seem reasonable, 
then, that he should be appointed by the 
church, or at least that the church should be 
satisfied that he is a man to whom it can trust 
the teaching of children. The entire Sun- 
day-school, moreover, should feel that the 
superintendent is one to whom they can look 
with the utmost confidence, and therefore the 
school should have a voice in his appointment. 
In the appointment of its officers, as in all of 



46 HOW TO CONDUCT 

its work, the Sunday-school should work in 
unison with the church. 

The method by which the officers of the 
Sunday-school are appointed need not be the 
same under all circumstances. In a large as- 
sembly more formality will be necessary than 
in a small congregation. The ordinary pro- 
cedure is: After the devotional service — sing- 
ing and prayer — of the meeting appointed for 
the organization of the Sunday-school let some 
one take the leadership of the meeting and ask 
those present to suggest a superintendent. In 
a small congregation one suggestion will fre- 
quently be all that is necessary, for men and 
women with a superintendent's qualifications 
are not very numerous. If not many are pres- 
ent and only one person is suggested, the com- 
mon consent of all or of the majority present 
should be sufficient to authorize that brother or 
sister to assume the duties of superintendent. 
If the assemby is large and two or three names 
are suggested as prospective superintendents, it 
is customary to allow all present to express 
themselves either by lifting their hands or by 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 47 

rising to their feet. The names should be pre- 
sented in the order in which they are first 
named. The one receiving the highest number 
of approvals should be considered appointed. 
Sometimes the dissatisfaction of the minority 
will effectually hinder the superintendent in the 
performance of his duties. In Christian as- 
semblies, however, the minority should quietly 
acquiesce in the sentiments of the majority, un- 
less there is some very strong reason for doing 
otherwise. 

In this same manner the assistant superin- 
tendent, the secretary, the treasurer, and the 
teachers may be appointed. In the appoint- 
ment of a teacher neither the class nor the of- 
ficers of the Sunday-school nor yet the church 
should have the supreme authority. That the 
class should be pleased is highly desirable, but 
that the ability and the suitability of the teacher 
should be such as the officers and the church 
will approve is also important. A class will 
often select a teacher for superficial reasons. 
Although the choice of the class can not be 
wholly ignored, yet the ability of the teacher 



48 HOW TO CONDUCT 

to impart spiritual truths is vastly more im- 
portant than any other consideration. The 
ideal, of course, is for the class, the officers of 
the school, and the church to concur and agree 
in the appointment of every teacher and as well 
as every officer. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 49 

CHAPTER III. 

LEADERS OF THE SCHOOL. 

If grave responsibilities rest upon a minis- 
ter, still graver, Jn some respects, rest upon the 
officers of a Sunday-school. The minister has 
to deal mainly with adults, who are capable of 
reasoning and of choosing, and who may, there- 
fore, reject or accept his doctrine according as 
they believe it to be true or false. With the lead- 
ers of a Sunday-school, however, it is somewhat 
different. The majority of their pupils are 
children and young people, who, in a great 
many cases, look to the teacher absolutely and 
accept his teaching unqualifiedly. Great re- 
sponsibility, therefore, rests upon the leaders of 
the Sunday-school. The pastor, the superin- 
tendent, the secretary, and the treasurer are 
responsible for the school as a whole, while the 
teachers are responsible only for their respective 
classes. 

Thus the very nature of the task requires 
that the leaders of the Sunday-school be pure, 
spiritual, conscientious, capable. The instruction 



50 HOW TO CONDUCT 

of our children in the Bible and in the ways of 
the Lord, the most important of all education, 
should not be entrusted either to persons who 
are not spiritual or to those who are not capa- 
ble. No one who knows the importance of early 
training and the inestimable value of the Sun- 
day-school can look upon the position of a 
Sunday-school teacher or worker as an inferior 
office, one that may be filled by almost any- 
body. 

In a previous lesson we have mentioned the 
officers of the Sunday-school and the manner 
of their appointment. Now we shall study 
their qualifications and their duties. Each of- 
ficer will be considered separately. The offi- 
cers of the Sunday-school, as we have before 
considered them, are pastor, superintendent, 
secretary, treasurer, librarian, and teachers. 

THE PASTOR. 

No pastor can make the highest degree of 

success who does not take an interest in the 

young. The pastor, of all men, should have 

a heart great enough to love everybody. He 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 51 

should be the spiritual adviser and the personal 
friend of every worker. His first duty is to be 
in sympathy with the interests and the objects 
of the school, to appreciate its value, and to 
encourage its progress. This he can not do 
unless he frequently attends. 

In many cases where the school is small and 
the pastoral duties are not too many, the pas- 
tor can act as superintendent. If, however, 
he has more than one meeting on the Lord's 
day, he will likely find the superintendence 
too much of a strain. If he can not superin- 
tend the Sunday-school or teach the Bible- 
class, he should, as often as possible, attend 
the school and lend his assistance by speaking 
a few words of encouragement, by giving a few 
minutes'talk to the whole school, by taking an 
interest in the classes, or by spending a little 
time socially with the workers and the pupils 
after the school is dismissed. Also, by making 
public mention of the progress of the school or 
by referring to the lesson in prayer-meeting or 
in other public meetings, he can afford the 
school much encouragement. The pastor should, 



52 HOW TO CONDUCT 

if possible, become personally acquainted with 
every scholar in the school, so that he may recog- 
nize them wherever he meets them. The ele- 
vating influence upon the mind of the child or 
young person by a mere recognition or a kind 
word can not be overestimated. The pastor 
should not be merely an official character to 
be seen only in the pulpit or the Sunday-school 
room, but should be an every-day man, one who 
may be approached by young and old with the 
feeling that he is a sympathetic friend. 

There are many practical ways in which the 
pastor may encourage and assist the workers 
of the Sunday-school. Publicly and privately 
he can mention in prayer the Sunday-school, its 
workers, and its pupils. He can suggest books 
that will be interesting and profitable for the 
Sunday-school library. He can assist the super- 
intendent in the introduction of better methods 
for the management of the Sunday-school. 
Above all, he can attend the weekly teachers' 
meeting, join in the study of the lesson, and 
advise concerning the management of the 
school. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 53 

THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
/. Qualifications. 

A man may be a practical superintendent 
and yet not possess in the superlative degree all 
the qualifications that an ideal superintendent 
should possess. Those persons, therefore, who 
do not possess all the qualifications we are about 
to mention need not for that reason hesitate 
to undertake the work and do the best they 
can. Furthermore, almost all of the necessary 
qualifications for a good Sunday-school super- 
intendent may be attained by cultivation. 

The first and most important qualification is 
spirituality. A man without salvation, be his 
intellectual developments ever so great, is not 
qualified to superintend the church school. In 
this work, as in all other Christian work, God 
wants men with clean hands and pure hearts. 
Spirituality alone, however, is not sufficient. 
A man may be ever so spiritual and still be 
incapable of superintending a Sunday-school. 

He who would govern others must first learn 
to govern himself. A good superintendent, 



54 HOW TO CONDUCT 

therefore, must first be able to superintend him- 
self, to control his feelings, to be always kind, 
to suffer without threatening, to be in all things 
a man. A superintendent should possess execu- 
tive ability and a strong personality. He should, 
while saying the kindest thing in the kindest 
way, be able to make the force of his words 
felt. He should be forceful, but not unkind; 
strong, but not overbearing; dignified, but not 
proud; reserved, but easily entreated. He 
should, in a word, combine in his personality 
an equilibrium of those qualities that will en- 
courage the timid and restrain the unruly and 
control the school by his presence and his 
words. 

A superintendent will find a good education 
of great value in his work. Education, of 
course, should not be allowed to go on dress 
parade on the platform; in fact, a man who is 
thoroughly educated and refined, especially a 
man who has salvation, good judgment, and 
self-control, will never employ "fine" language 
and try to appear educated. Nevertheless, a 
thorough education, both in literature and in 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 55 

the Bible, will be found of great value. A 
Bible education, of course, is most important 
of all. 

GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES OF A 
SUPERINTENDENT. 

Tardiness — Punctuality. A tardy superin- 
tendent is never in a hurry. He is one of those 
come-easy, go-easy fellows who thinks that ' it 
is all day till night." He takes good care of 
his nerves and has plenty of time for social 
chats. It does not matter if the whole school 
is waiting for him; he has an excuse for 
being late — an excuse satisfactory to himself. 
So, after stopping at the door for a social chat 
with some teacher who, like himself, happens 
to be late, he makes his way leisurely to the 
platform, and in a not very inspiring tone of 
voice announces the first hymn. In announcing 
the time of a meeting he is careful to do so in 
approximate terms. If he says that the school 
will meet on next Sunday about 9:30 o'clock, 
you will discover, if you attend, that about 
9: 30 o'clock with him means anywhere be- 



56 HOW TO CONDUCT 

tween 9:30 and 10:00. The effect of a 
tardy superintendent upon a Sunday-school is 
to create in some of its more passive members 
a similar state of carelessness and to discourage 
others about the possibility of success. 

The punctual superintendent is the first man 
in the Sunday-school room. He attends to the 
matter of ventilation, sees that the janitor or 
whoever acts in that capacity, has the room in 
perfect order and readiness. He begins on 
time, conducts every part of the school with 
inspiring promptness, and dismisses the school 
promptly at the appointed time. 

No one can do more for the success of a Sun- 
day-school than a punctual superintendent, and 
no one can so quickly discourage every member 
of the school and render failure inevitable than 
a tardy, easy-going superintendent. 

Apathy — Earnestness. A little different 
from the superintendent that is habitually tardy 
is the superintendent who, though usually 
prompt, is never deeply in earnest about any- 
thing. He comes in quietly, and gives out the 
hymn, conducts the review, and does every- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 57 



things so gently as not to excite any one nor to 
leave the impression that he is doing anything 
of importance. He may say considerable about 
the sweet influence of the Holy Spirit, the purity 
of a righteous life, and the desirableness of 
heaven ; but he seldom says anything about re- 
bellious sinners, the judgments of an almighty 
God, the dreadful consequences of sin, or the 
damnation of hell. He is full of ease, but 
void of force. 

The earnest superintendent makes you feel 
that everything connected with the Sunday- 
school is important. He comes in, not with 
a rush and storm, but in such a business-like 
way as to make you feel at once that some- 
thing worth doing is about to be done. He 
calls the school to order, announces the first 
hymn, and says "Let us pray" with a depth of 
feeling and earnestness that inspires every one 
to devotion. He does not overload his sen- 
tences with such tender terms as "sweet," 
"dear," and "precious," nor does he try to at- 
tract attention by bold, startling, and unex- 
pected expressions. He has a more effectual 



58 HOW TO CONDUCT 

way, an irresistible power by which he moves 
the school — he is in earnest. 

A superintendent who is not interested in 
his school himself can not reasonably expect to 
interest others. A Sunday-school can over- 
look a thousand faults, can condone a thou- 
sand errors, in their superintendent, if only they 
know that he is sincere, that he is in earnest. 

Fault-finding — Commendation. The fault- 
finding, scolding superintendent can see nothing 
but neglect, tardiness, lack of interest. He 
may not be able to see it in himself, but he can 
see it in others. He may know that people 
are weary of his admonitions and exhorta- 
tions, but he can not refrain. He is a chronic 
grumbler. The school would almost be sur- 
prised if one session should pass without their 
receiving the usual reprimand. 

Flattery, it is true, should not be indulged 
in by the superintendent; nevertheless, most 
people improve more rapidly when commended 
for their virtues than when censured for their 
faults. Speaking a few words or giving a lit- 
tle commendation will win the heart of a child 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 59 

much more quickly than parading its faults 
before it or censuring it for its lack of attention. 

Talkativeness — Brevity. The talkative 
superintendent does not lack for words; he al- 
ways has something to say. He forgets to say 
it all while he is on his feet, and so has to get 
up half a dozen times to "add just one more 
thought/' He talks till the whole school is 
interested, and then talks till they are decidedly 
disinterested. He makes every one glad when 
he begins to speak and glad when he takes his 
seat. His vocabulary, though seemingly large 
enough, does not include the word "brevity." 
The timid superintendent finds it hard to be- 
gin, but the talkative superintendent finds it 
hard to stop. 

A superintendent may be lacking in many 
of the qualities that go to make up a brilliant 
and fluent speaker; but if he is pointed and 
brief, he has at least one quality for which every 
member of the Sunday-school will commend 
him. The ideal superintendent has something 
to say, says it, and then sits down. 

Monotony — Variety. The monotonous 



60 HOW TO CONDUCT 

superintendent, a changeless sort of a man, is 
like a machine ; he always starts, continues, and 
stops just the same way. Nobody is surprised; 
there is no suspense, for every one knows what 
is coming next. Fifty-two Sundays in the 
year there is the same round — two opening 
hymns, "now let us have a season of prayer," 
"the classes will now take their places." The 
whole school moves like clock-work without 
having a sign of a spring. 

Fitful changing, a struggling after the novel, 
are certainly not commendable, but the mind 
wearies of monotony. There is always a ready 
response to a normal variety of things, and 
pleasant changes in the manner of opening, 
conducting, reviewing, and dismissing will add 
life and interest. The mind wearies of monoto- 
nous formality; the laws of thought are abused 
by spasmodic changing ; but the interest is awak- 
ened and the spirit refreshed by normal change 
and variety. 

Self-conceit — Humility. Enough self-reli- 
ance is needed in a superintendent to keep him 
from wasting valuable time in making apolo- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 61 

gies; but such a degree of self-conceit in him 
as will make him insist, under all circumstances 
and regardless of others' opinions, that his own 
is right, will sooner or later, cause the whole 
school to become disgusted. Self-conceit in 
any one is revolting, and in one who poses as 
a leader in spiritual things it is intolerable. 

Humility, on the other hand, does not con- 
sist in self-condemnation, self-depreciation, and 
apologies. Some superintendents seem to have 
the idea that, unless they make about so many 
apologies, they will not be thought humble; 
others are continually confessing their faults. 
The truly humble man knows that he is weak, 
that he has faults enough; but he knows as 
well that others can see them without his point- 
ing them out. He is willing, therefore, to do 
his part in the fear of the Lord and to let oth- 
ers estimate him as they will. In fact, he thinks 
more about Christ, of the Sunday-school les- 
son, and the souls for whose instruction he is 
responsible, than he does of himself. He is 
willing, in a word, to do what is his to do and to 
let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest. 



62 HOW TO CONDUCT 

Conservativeness — Progressiveness. The con- 
servative superintendent is sure to go right if 
he goes at all, but he seldom goes fast enough 
to convince anybody that he is going some- 
where. He always takes double time to con- 
sider the adoption of any new plan for the Sun- 
day-school, and then, for fear that it might not 
be for the best he decides not to adopt it. He 
makes a better land-mark than a leader. He 
is never the first by whom the new is tried, but 
he is frequently the last to lay the old aside. 

The extremely progressive superintendent, 
on the other hand, is ever ready to try new 
things. The school hardly gets acquainted with 
his way and plans until he is ready to change. 
He goes fast enough, but he is not very cer- 
tain about his direction. He would make an 
excellent leader if he could get people to fol- 
low, but he goes so fast that nobody can keep 
up with him. 

The ideal superintendent goes neither too 
fast nor too slow. He does not follow the 
promptings of his own fancy, but considers 
the desires and feelings of others. He is con- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 63 

servative, but he does not allow his methods to 
become stale. He is, in short, conservatively 
progressive. 

//. His Duties. 

To Be an Example. The first duty of a 
superintendent is to be an example. He should 
be all that he wishes the school to be. If he 
wishes the teachers and the school to be spir- 
itual, to have their lessons well, to be prompt 
and diligent, to be interested and to interest 
others, he must set them a worthy example in 
all these particulars. 

To Superintend. The superintendent must 
first superintend himself; secondly, he must 
superintend the teachers' meeting; and lastly, 
the school. The superintendent who can not 
set a good example, can not govern himself, 
and can not manage the teachers of the school, 
can hope for but little success in superintend- 
ing the school. The Bible says of a bishop, 
If he can not "rule his own house, how shall 
he care for the church of God?" So with the 
Sunday-school superintendent; if he can not 
govern his own family, if he can not control 



64 HOW TO CONDUCT 

himself, or if he can not get along with the 
teachers, how can he superintend the school? 

The superintendent who does not attend the 
weekly teachers' meeting and show a lively in- 
terest in assisting the teachers in the acquire- 
ment of the lesson itself, in the study of the 
principles of teaching, and in the development 
of plans for the management of the school, is 
not worthy of his position and can not long 
maintain the confidence of the teachers and of 
the school in his ability to superintend. 

To Open the School. Napoleon maintained 
that the first five minutes are the most decisive 
minutes of the whole battle. The importance 
of rightly opening the Sunday-school can not 
be overestimated. The first thing is to se- 
cure attention and to establish order. A wise 
superintendent will never begin the devotional 
exercises until he has secured perfect quietude 
and the attention of all. One tap of the bell 
or a word from the superintendent is all that 
should be required to bring perfect order in the 
Sunday-school room. If from the beginning 
the superintendent makes it thoroughly under- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 65 

stood that he will tap the bell only once for 
order or give only one call for attention, and 
will expect every one to respond, he will have 
little difficulty in securing attention; but if he 
falls into the habit of ringing the bell once and 
then allowing disorder, talking, and moving 
around to continue, he will find himself con- 
fronted with an almost insurmountable diffi- 
culty in securing order and attention. The 
superintendent's own attitude will do much to 
govern others. If he is orderly and punctual 
himself, he will not have much difficulty in get- 
ting everybody else to follow his example; but 
if he calls for order and then turns to finish a con- 
versation with some one or begins to move aim- 
lessly about as if there were plenty of time, he 
will labor in vain to secure prompt attention. 
One thing of importance is to make the de- 
votional exercises sacred. Never call the song 
and prayer "opening exercises"; rather call 
them "devotional service." In a large school 
it is frequently advisable for the one who leads 
the singing to stand. Every one present should 
be not only invited but urged to join in the 



66 HOW TO CONDUCT 

singing. There is no generally accepted liturgy 
or universal form by which the devotional part 
of a Sunday-school should be conducted. 
Whatever is done should be done sacredly, and 
every teacher, student, and visitor should be 
made to fell the sacredness of the hour and, if 
possible, be induced to join in the devotions. 
If the superintendent reads the lesson, he should 
secure the attention of all. When it is time for 
prayer, every one present, large or small, should 
be requested to kneel or at least to bow the 
head. 

To Continue the School Each class should 
have its place. If the classes do not take their 
places upon entering the Sunday-school room, 
immediately after the devotional services the 
superintendent should ask the classes to take 
their places as quietly as possible. When the 
classes are well settled and the studies begun, 
it is the superintendent's duty to keep an eye 
on the whole school, to lend assistance wher- 
ever he can, to see that one class does not make 
so much noise as to disturb all the others, and 
to keep order in general. One teacher may 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 67 

be encountering some difficulty with hard and 
unexpected questions; if the superintendent is 
attentive, he may be around just at the 
right moment to assist her. A timid teacher 
may be experiencing some difficulty in manag- 
ing a disorderly student; again the superin- 
tendent is on the spot, and by his kindly and 
timely assistance, the timid teacher is saved 
much embarrassment, the unruly child is 
brought into subjection, and the lesson goes on 
with but little interruption. 

To Close the School. Promptness is no 
less desirable in closing the school than in open- 
ing it. One class should not be allowed to in- 
fringe upon the time of the whole school sim- 
ply because the class has become interested 
in some hair-splitting question about the les- 
son. In fact, the more that hair-splitting ques- 
tions are kept out, the better it will be for the 
school. Whatever the excuse for running over 
the regular time, no class should be allowed 
to do so. There should be time to close as 
well as a time to begin and this should be thor- 
oughly understood by every teacher and pupil. 



68 HOW TO CONDUCT 

It is in conducting the review of the lesson 
that the superintendent must show his grasp 
of the lesson and his ability to superintend the 
school. A capable superintendent will not 
make long, drawn-out explanations and ex- 
tended discourses on the lesson. His duty is 
not to preach a sermon, but to sum up the les- 
son, to outline its teaching, to point out the 
practical benefits to be derived from the les- 
son, to ask a few pointed questions and call 
upon members of different classes to answer 
them. Questions should be framed in such a 
way that they may be answered by yes or no, 
or at least in a very few words. Questions 
requiring a long explanation should never be 
asked. 

To interest the senior and the intermediate 
members of the school and at the same time to 
hold the attention of the junior and the pri- 
mary departments may not always be an easy 
task. The tactful superintendent, however, 
will manage some way to hold the attention of 
both young and old by shifting his questions 
from one class to another, by simplifying his 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 69 

comments, by illustrating some part of the les- 
son by the use of the blackboard or of maps, 
by asking some bright boy or girl to give his 
or her idea about some point of the lesson. By 
some of these methods or by all of them he will 
succeed in keeping the attention to the last, for 
with the less talkative superintendent the last 
is not long delayed. It is better for the super- 
intendent to close the school with dissatisfaction 
because he has not said enough than to close 
it with dissatisfaction because he has said too 
much. In the former case they will think that 
he has kept something good for next Sunday, 
whereas in the latter they will think that he 
has told it all, and hence they will not 
be anxious to come back. He should remem- 
ber that apologies will never redeem time and 
that all the excuses he can make will not atone 
for the disinterest he has caused by wearying 
his hearers. 

Whether the school is to close with singing, 
with prayer, or merely with a benediction must 
be left to the discretion of the leader of the 
school. Whatever the form of closing, it 



70 HOW TO CONDUCT 

should, like the devotional service at the be- 
ginning, be sacred and be prompt; for there 
is a time to close as well as a time to begin. 

THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT. 

Unless the school be exceptionally large, 
an assistant superintendent is not needed, ex- 
cept in the absence of the superintendent or 
in his inability to act. It is usually advisable, 
however, even in a small school, to have an 
assistant superintendent who is always ready 
on short notice to assume the responsibility and 
the duties of the superintendent. Then, in case 
of sickness or of unusual circumstances the 
school can go on without interruption. It is 
not necessary to consider in detail the quali- 
fications and the duties of the assistant super- 
intendent, for they conform in every respect to 
those of the superintendent. To express it in 
the stereotyped form used by organizations in 
general: "In the absence of the superintendent 
the assistant superintendent shall be subject to 
the responsibilities of, and perform all the duties 
of, the superintendent." 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 71 



SUPERINTENDENT ON CLASSIFICATION — 
DEPARTMENT SUPERINTENDENT. 

The superintendent on classification, whose 
duty it is to meet all the new scholars and di- 
rect them to the classes which they are to at- 
tend, should have a thorough knowledge of the 
general management and of the gradation of 
the school; he should be polite and kind; he 
should have good judgment and be able to 
think and act quickly. In small schools his 
duties can be performed either by the secre- 
tary or by the superintendent. 

Department superintendents, like the super- 
intendent on classification, are needed only in 
large schools. But in schools that are too 
large for the superintendent to give attention 
to every department of the school the depart- 
ment superintendents are a necessity. For ex- 
ample, let us take a city school with eight hun- 
dred scholars in attendance. If we divide 
them equally into four departments — primary, 
junior, intermediate, and senior — and each de- 
partment equally into eight classes, we have 



72 HOW TO CONDUCT 

thirty-two classes of twenty-five scholars each. 
It would be impossible for one superintendent 
to give attention to all these classes during the 
school hour. In such a case a superintendent 
is appointed for each department and is ex- 
pected to give general attention to that de- 
partment during the school session. The de- 
partment superintendents are, in fact, so many 
assistant superintendents. Department super- 
intendents assist the teachers and keep order. 
It is unnecessary to give in detail the work of 
a department superintendent. For the time be- 
ing, he is, in his limited sphere, a superin- 
tendent and as such should possess all the quali- 
ties and perform all the duties of a superin- 
tendent. 

The department superintendent will, as a 
matter of fact, be more often demanded in the 
primary and junior departments than in the in- 
termediate and senior departments. In this, 
as in all other things associated with the Sun- 
day-school, the demand should control the sup- 
ply. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 73 



THE SECRETARY. 
The qualifications of a good Sunday-school 
secretary other than those common to all the 
Sunday-school workers, are the qualifications 
of a good clerk — punctuality, carefulness, and 
penmanship. It is the duty of the Sunday- 
school secretary to attend all meetings of the 
school, whether regular or special, and to make 
and keep a complete record of the important 
transactions at such meetings. This, of course, 
will include keeping the roll-book. The duties 
of the secretary are largely dependent upon 
the general policy of the school. If a com- 
plete record of all the scholars, of the attend- 
ance, and detailed minutes of each meeting are 
required, the secretary's work will be much 
greater than if the policy of the school is to 
keep only a brief record. How complete the 
records are to be kept and how they are to be 
kept must be decided by the officers of the 
school. The instructions here, therefore, can 
be only general in their character. 



74 HOW TO CONDUCT 



THE TREASURER. 

The principal requirements and qualifica- 
tions of a treasurer should be faithfulness and 
carefulness. I might add economy to the quali- 
fications of the treasurer, but in most cases the 
treasurer is not expected to pay out money 
without an order from the superintendent and 
the secretary. The treasurer's duties are 
mainly to receipt all moneys collected from the 
several classes of the Sunday-school, to keep a 
faithful record of these amounts, to pay out 
money on the order of the officers of the school, 
to keep a faithful and complete record of all 
moneys received and disbursed, and to give 
a record of the same either to the superintendent 
or to the whole school, as may be required. 

In small schools the work of a treasurer and 
that of a secretary may be done by one per- 
son. 

THE LIBRARIAN. 

In a small school the secretary is most nat- 
urally the one to do the work of a librarian. 
When, however, the school is sufficiently large 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 75 

to require all the secretary's time in doing the 
work incident to his office, it is best to have a 
librarian. Besides spirituality, a good li- 
brarian should combine a love for the chil- 
dren and the young people with good judgment 
and literary taste. Unless a librarian is a per- 
sistent reader, he is not likely to become very 
deeply interested in the library and, conse- 
quently, not to interest any one else. A lively 
interest may be awakened in the Sunday-school 
and much good be accomplished by the care- 
ful, systematic handling of the Sunday-school 
library. Its benefits can be extended to every 
department, class, and individual of the school, 
to the old as well as to the young, to the un- 
saved as well as to the saved. An energetic 
librarian will be constantly on the lookout for 
good books. Upon receiving a good book, he 
will promptly peruse it himself and make a 
summary of its contents ; then he will endeavor 
to get everybody in the school interested in 
the book. Of course, he can not supply all 
at once; but he will find it profitable, never- 
theless, to get every one enthusiastic over his 



76 HOW TO CONDUCT 

new book, for those who wait anxiously will 
read it with interest. It is better to have peo- 
ple interested and anxious to read a book they 
can not get than to have a library full of books 
that are never read. 

Not unimportant among the duties of the li- 
brarian is the care of the books. He should 
keep a careful record, so that at all times he 
will know where every book is. He should 
insist, furthermore, that every reader be care- 
ful not to soil or otherwise injure the books. 

Besides the books for general reading, some 
good reference books, such as a Bible diction- 
ary, Bible atlas, Bible history, and even a good 
literary dictionary, are valuable aids to the 
Sunday-school. 

The books selected for children not only 
should conform to truth, but, to insure their 
being read, should be interesting. 

THE TEACHERS. 

The Sunday-school may have a good super- 
intendent, secretary, treasurer, and librarian, 
may have all the necessary mechanical equip- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 77 

ment of a good Sunday-school, and may have 
a large attendance ; but unless it has good teach- 
ers, it can not attain a high degree of success. 
The teacher is the point of contact, is the chan- 
nel through which the truths of the lesson and 
the blessings of the Sunday-school flow to the 
hearts and the minds of the scholars. We may 
profitably consider two aspects of the Sun- 
day-school teacher: 1. What a Sunday-school 
teacher should be; 2. What a Sunday-school 
teacher should know. 

L WHAT A SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER 
SHOULD BE. 

The first qualification of a Sunday-school 
teacher is a Christian character. He should 
know how to secure the aid and guidance of 
the Holy Spirit; for often it shall have to be 
given him "in that hour [the hour of his class] 
what he shall say." Kindness, sobriety, and 
endurance are all necessary to enable the 
teacher to get along well with the many minds 
and dispositions he will meet in a teacher's 
career. The successful teacher, moreover, must 



78 HOW TO CONDUCT 

have an aptitude to teach — be able so to tell 
what he knows that others may comprehend it. 
Merely the telling of a thing or the expound- 
ing of a lesson is not all that is essential to 
teaching. There is no real teaching unless 
somebody learns. There are thousands of day- 
school teachers, men and women with a high- 
grade teacher's certificate, who, in the strict- 
est sense of the word, are not teachers at all. 
They know enough, but they lack the aptitude 
to teach and hence can not convey their knowl- 
edge to others. The man who does not know 
so much but can transmit what he does know 
is a better teacher than the one who- knows 
a great deal but can not transmit so much. It 
follows, therefore, that the ability of a Sun- 
day-school teacher is dependent, not alone upon 
how much he knows about the Bible and spir- 
itual things, but also upon his aptitude to teach, 
or his ability to transmit what he knows. 

The ability to govern is also an important 
qualification of a teacher. In the first place, he 
must be able to keep order in his class; for no 
teacher can make a success so long as he al- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 79 

lows disorder, lets unruly pupils disturb the 
order of the class. More important than the 
ability merely to keep order is psychological 
control. The teacher must be able to govern 
and control all minds, to keep them alive with 
interest and their thoughts centered upon the 
lesson; he must lead them from cause to ef- 
fect, from premise to conclusion, on and on, 
in an endless chain, from the beginning to the 
end of the lesson. This psychological con- 
trol can be gained only by persistent effort, un- 
divided attention, and indomitable determina- 
tion. Some persons naturally have stronger per- 
sonality than others; but, whether personality 
is inherent or acquired, the successful teacher 
must possess the power to keep perfect order 
and the control of all minds. 

n. WHAT A TEACHER SHOULD KNOW. 

There are three subjects around which are 
grouped what a teacher should know : 1 . The 
Bible; 2. The pupil; 3. Methods of teaching. 

What a Teacher should Know about the 
Bible* It is possible to give here only a list of 



80 HOW TO CONDUCT 

subjects, for the object of this lesson is merely 
to tell the teachers what they should know. 
Every Sunday-school teacher should have a 
knowledge of such fundamental subjects as 
Bible geography, Bible history, Bible man- 
ners and customs, the institutions of the Jew- 
ish people, and the laws of Biblical interpreta- 
tion. A study of the characters and the books 
of the Bible is invaluable. From the physical 
geography of the Bible lands many of the im- 
ages, parables, and illustrations of the Bible 
are drawn. A knowledge of Bible political 
geography is necessary to the understanding of 
many passages of Scripture. Bible history in 
the Old Testament traces the development of 
God's plan of salvation from the fall of man 
to the cross of Christ; in the New Testament 
Bible history shows us the development of that 
plan in the production of the virgin church. 
Bible manners and customs acquaint us with 
the home life, with the social and political af- 
fairs, of the periods wherein the Bible was 
written. By this study we acquaint ourselves 
with the prevalent modes of thought, with the 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 81 

linguistic habits of the sacred writers; in a 
word, we become acquainted with all the or- 
dinary affairs of life, which are inseparably in- 
termingled with almost every passage in the 
Bible. The Christian church is the successor 
to the Jewish religion. In the Old Testament 
the worship by the Jewish people is a type of 
the New Testament church and the Christian 
religion. Hence the necessity of being thor- 
oughly acquainted with the institutions of the 
Jewish people. These institutions are such as 
the tabernacle in the wilderness, the temple, 
the priesthood, the national feasts, and the 
offerings and sacrifices of the law. By the 
study of the characters and the books of the 
Bible we learn the relative position of each 
author and of each book in the development of 
the redemptive plan. 

Just as nobody is prepared to teach in the 
secular schools until he has acquired a knowl- 
edge of grammar, geography, history, mathe- 
matics, etc.; so nobody is fully equipped to 
teach in the Sunday-school until he has ac- 
quired at least an elementary knowledge of 



82 HOW TO CONDUCT 

the subjects before mentioned. This does not 
mean that our teachers, if there be such, who 
have not acquired a knowledge of these sub- 
jects, should quit teaching; but it certainly does 
mean that if any teacher lacks such knowledge, 
he should do all in his power to acquire it. 

What a Teacher should Know about the 
Pupil. Since a future lesson is devoted to Sun- 
day-school pedagogy, or the study of the pupil, 
it will be necessary here only to emphasize the 
importance of studying the pupil as well as 
the lesson. The Sunday-school teacher who 
puts in all his time studying the lesson and no 
time studying his pupils may acquire a knowl- 
edge of the lesson so that he can recite it; but 
he should consider the fact that he is more than 
a reciter, that he is a teacher. 

There are two aspects to the study of the 
pupil; general and particular. The teacher 
should knew in a general way the tendencies 
and inclinations of the human mind and heart, 
and should understand the successive stages of 
the development of the mind. But besides 
making a general study of human nature and 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 83 

of the laws of thought, the teacher should make 
a particular study of each pupil. It is very 
evident to every one who has ever attempted 
to teach a class and to every one who has 
taken careful thought upon the subject, that 
all pupils can not be taught alike. 

What a Sunday-school Teacher should 
Knorv about Methods of Teaching. When a 
teacher has acquired a knowledge of the Bi- 
ble, of the lesson to be taught, and of the needs 
of the pupils to whom the lesson is to be taught, 
he next needs to learn the best modes of trans- 
mitting his knowledge. Methods of teaching, 
or the laws of thought, are the connecting link 
between teacher and pupil. Unless the teacher 
understands these laws and employs the meth- 
ods that they suggest, he wastes much time 
and labor, and imparts to his pupil only a small 
amount of the knowledge that he tries to con- 
vey. Since, in another place, I shall deal with 
the principles of teaching, it is necessary here 
only to call attention to their importance. 



84 HOW TO CONDUCT 



THE TEACHERS MEETING. 

Attendance. The pastor, the superintend- 
ent, the assistant superintendent, the secretary, 
and all the teachers should attend every ses- 
sion of the teachers' meeting. The importance 
of this meeting would be hard to overestimate. 
Without them no school can attain the degree 
of efficiency that its leaders should desire. 

Purpose. The purpose of the teachers' 
meeting is (1 ) to study the lesson; (2) to se- 
cure cooperation and concentration of effort, 
and unity of teaching; (3) to consider the 
needs of the school and to strengthen the weak 
places; (4) to train teachers. 

Time. Any evening that is most convenient 
for all will do for the teachers' meeting, but 
Thursday or Friday evening is an ideal time. 
Too early in the week does not give time for 
the study of the lesson, and the lesson should 
be studied by all before the teachers' meet- 
ing ; too late in the week does not give time for 
the digestion of the thoughts gathered at the 
meeting. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 85 

Manner of Conducting. Not all meetings, 
of course, can be conducted in the same way, 
but the following suggested program may be 
helpful to beginners. 

1. Devotional service, singing, and prayer. 

2. Roll call. 

3. Business for not more than ten minutes. 

4. Lesson for forty minutes. 

(a) Intervening occurrences between 
the present lesson and the previ- 
ous. 

(b) Persons, places, and principal 
events of the lesson. 

(c) Outline of the lesson given by 
one teacher and criticised by all. 

(d) Illustrations given by different 
teachers. 

(e) Adaptation of the lesson to the 
different grades. Let some teacher 
tell how to adapt the lesson to the 
primary grade, another to the jun- 
iors, etc. 

(f) Summary of the lesson. Let one 
teacher make a summary of the 



86 HOW TO CONDUCT 

lesson and let others fill in what is 
omitted, 
(g) Application of the lesson. Let 
different ones apply the lesson to 
some present need of the school, 
to the neighborhood, or to them- 
selves. 
Every teacher should be required to take 
part. A different teacher may be appointed 
each evening to lead the next meeting. The 
teachers' meeting, like all other meetings, 
should begin promptly at the hour appointed and 
should not be allowed to run over the hour of 
closing. This will test not only the punctuality 
of the teachers but also their ability to express 
the lesson in a few pointed sentences. A 
teacher that tires the other teachers with long- 
drawn-out explanations and the rehearsal of 
unimportant details of the lesson will do no 
better before the class. Above all things, the 
principles of teaching should be taught in the 
teachers' meeting, by example as well as by 
precept. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 87 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PUPIL. 

The object of teaching, secular or religious, 
is to educate the pupil. To educate means, 
literally, to draw out, not to fill in. The 
"pouring method" has long since been repu- 
diated by successful teachers. To explain a 
lesson is not always to teach a lesson; for un- 
less some one learns, there is no teaching. The 
pupil, and not the lesson, should be the point 
of beginning. First study the child and then 
study the lesson in relation to the child. It is 
important that a teacher thoroughly study the 
lesson; but the teacher who spends all the time 
on the lesson and no time studying the class 
is like the farmer who carefully selects his 
seed but neglects to prepare the soil. 

The point of contact is the place where the 
common knowledge of pupil and teacher meet. 
To find this point of contact is one of the 



88 HOW TO CONDUCT 

great secrets of successful teaching. If the 
teacher presents the thoughts of the lesson too 
abstrusely for the minds of the pupils, the 
pupils do not learn; but if he presents the les- 
son too simply, it becomes dull and disinterest- 
ing. To find this point of contact, therefore, 
is the teacher's first duty; and the only way 
to find it is by a careful study of the child. 

There are, in general, two methods of study- 
ing the child: study of those general principles 
of psychology and of human nature common 
to all children, and particular study of the 
disposition, tendencies, and peculiar habits of 
each child. 



I. GENERAL STUDY OF THE PUPIL. 

The development of the mind from infancy 
to maturity passes through three stages: child- 
hood, youth, and adolescence. Since some 
children develop more rapidly than others, the 
age at which a child becomes a youth or a 
youth becomes an adolescent is not distinctly 
marked. Therefore the ages that I shall give 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 89 

as marking the several stages must be under- 
stood as only approximate. 



CHILDHOOD. 

Childhood includes all the pupils from 
three years old, or from whatever age the 
children are admitted to the school, up to and 
including those nine years of age. Childhood 
and the study of psychological principles are 
divided into kindergarten and primary. 

1 . Kindergarten. It is a mistake to suppose 
that just any one will do as a teacher for the 
kindergarten class. Facts are that some of 
the most serious difficulties are encountered in 
connection with this class. The kindergarten 
of the Sunday-school should aim not merely 
to entertain the little ones during the school- 
hour, but to teach them the ways of the Lord. 
At a very early age children can be impressed 
with the truths of the gospel, if the lessons are 
adapted to young minds. To teach the les- 
son so that it will be at once attractive and 
impressive is the none-too-easy task of the kin- 



90 HOW TO CONDUCT 

dergarten teacher; and since not all can adapt 
themselves to the needs of the child-mind, the 
selection of a kindergarten teacher becomes 
highly important. 

(a) Age. The kindergarten age is ordin- 
arily from three to five years, inclusive. 

(b) Mental Characteristics. The teacher 
who fails to study the mental characteristics of 
childhood and who can not take advantage of 
those characteristics and descend to childish 
modes of thought can do little more than wear 
herself out trying to teach. The most promi- 
nent characteristics of the kindergarten mind 
are ignorance, curiosity, wonder, restlessness, 
fear, imitativeness, love. The wise teacher will 
learn how to combat ignorance, to take advan- 
tage of curiosity and wonder, to allay restless- 
ness and fear, and to encourage imitativeness 
and love by setting an example worthy of the 
child's imitation and by cultivating a loving 
disposition. 

2. Primary. By the time children reach 
the primary department they have lost some of 
the characteristics of the kindergarten pupil, 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 91 

but still possess many of those childish traits 
that tend to baffle the teacher's skill. 

(a) Age. Six to nine years, inclusive. 

(b) Characteristics. Activity, imagination, 
affection, sensitiveness, reverence. 

YOUTH. 

Age. Ten to thirteen, inclusive. The pupils 
of this age are also called juniors. 

Characteristics. At this age the child has 
a greatly increased capacity for learning and 
consequently possesses a greater store of knowl- 
edge. This knowledge the teacher should 
never fail to utilize. Aspirations also spring 
up, and the boy or the girl has wonderful con- 
ceptions of what he or she is going to be and 
to do. These aspirations should be given a 
holy object, should be directed to Christian 
work, to the accomplishment of good in the 
world. The age at which a child becomes 
morally responsible is a much-mooted ques- 
tion. This age depends largely upon the child's 
mental development and religious education. 
We are quite safe in saying that usually chil- 



92 HOW TO CONDUCT 

dren become morally responsible some time 
between the ages of ten and fourteen. At 
this age, therefore, if not earlier, the child 
should be led to Christ. 

Influences. At this age boys and girls are 
strongly influenced by the power of example, 
and by association and companionship. Par- 
ents and teachers, therefore, should give all 
diligence to protect them from evil influences 
and bad company. A thirsting for knowledge 
and consequently for reading is an inclination 
characteristic of children at this age — an in- 
clination that inevitably exerts a great influence 
upon the life. This influence is good or bad 
according to the character of the literature they 
are permitted to read. Trashy literature read 
at this age has ruined many a boy and girl. A 
well-selected Sunday-school library and whole- 
some literature at home are invaluable to boys 
and girls. 

ADOLESCENCE. 

Adolescence is defined as the state of grow- 
ing up from childhood to manhood or woman- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 93 

hood; the period between puberty and matur- 
ity. In the male sex adolescence is generally 
considered to be from the fourteenth to the 
twenty-fifth year, and in the female sex from 
the twelfth to the twenty-first. We divide this 
period into three smaller ones; early, middle, 
and later adolescence. 

1. Early Adolescence. That at the age 
of puberty, or the beginning of early adol- 
escence, marked physical changes occur is gen- 
erally known, but that corresponding psycho- 
logical changes take place at the same time is 
too often overlooked. This is the time of a 
mental as well as a physical second birth. The 
teacher who fails to appreciate this fact can 
not approach the student sympathetically, and 
without this attitude the most diligent effort 
is a failure. 

(a) Age. It should be remembered that 
all the ages given here are only approximate 
and that therefore they should not be construed 
absolutely. The age of early adolescence is 
usually considered to be from twelve to six- 
teen. The stage of development, however, 



94 HOW TO CONDUCT 

begins in females about a year earlier than in 
males. 

(b) Traits. At no age do the traits of the 
pupil need more careful study than in early 
adolescence. 

Self-consciousness and consequent shyness 
and bashfulness make the early adolescent 
hard to approach. Patience, perseverance, 
however, will overcome the backwardness, 
brush away the self-consciousness, and open an 
avenue to the pupil's heart. 

This is also the age of beginnings. Pride, 
courage, ambition, and a thousand other forces 
before unknown come springing up in the 
heart and mind. The boy indulges himself in 
the delusion that he is now a man, and the 
girl dreams herself a woman; they disdain, 
respectively, the names "boy" and "girl." 

Emotions, too, and indescribable longings 
fill the mind. Parents and teachers should 
combine their efforts to direct these new-born 
emotions and to satisfy the longings by com- 
panionship and personal interest. 

At this age love and admiration for the op- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 95 

posite sex makes its appearance. This inclina- 
tion to love can be taken advantage of and 
used as a mighty influence for good. Through 
it pupils may be taught to love their parents, 
to love their teacher, to love good men and 
good women, and, above all, to love God. 

2. Middle Adolescence. Middle adoles- 
cence is the period in which the emotions and 
the intellect begin to take on more definite 
shape. It is the formative period, or the real 
beginning of the formation of manhood and 
womanhood. 

(a) Age. Eighteen to twenty-one, inclu- 
sive. 

(b) Characteristics. Day-dreams, enthu- 
siasm, romance are strong characteristics of 
middle adolescence. Careful restraint, but not 
suppression, should be brought to bear upon 
these bubbling fountains. In fact, it is im- 
possible to suppress entirely the forces and en- 
ergies of youth. To moderate them and to 
direct them in a good channel should be the 
object of parent and teacher. 

The young man and the young woman at 



96 HOW TO CONDUCT 

this age indulge in great hopes for the fu- 
ture, build many air-castles, and form high 
ideals. The wise teacher will encourage and 
direct these hopes, condone the air-castles, and 
point the pupil to the grace of God as the one 
great power in the realization of high ideals. 

Impulsiveness and passions are strong and 
active in the middle adolescent period and all 
young men and women have need of confi- 
dential advice and of strong moral influences 
to help them to bring every power of their na- 
ture into line with their high ideals and into 
subjection to the will of God. The passions 
and powers of the natural man either make us 
or ruin us, according as they are controlled or 
abused. The same tendencies that, when un- 
controlled, may blight and ruin the character, 
will, when controlled and rightly directed, make 
one a power among men to elevate society, to 
uphold pure morals, and to establish the king- 
dom of God. 

3. Later Adolescence. Later adolescence 
is the finishing-time of manhood and woman- 
hood. Though in some respects progress 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 97 

ceases only with the ending of life, yet a cer- 
tain mental and moral completeness or fixed 
state is reached at the time when the physical 
man becomes matured. 

(a) Age. Twenty-two to twenty-five years, 
inclusive. 

(b) Characteristics. At this time life takes 
on a more serious aspect. Who of us that 
have passed that age can not remember the 
serious thoughts we had after passing our twen- 
ty-first birthday? Middle adolescence is the 
last ascent on the hill of life before one reaches 
the great plain of middle age. As nature gives 
to the physical the final touch of maturity, so 
the teacher should bring the intellectual and 
spiritual powers of the student to the highest 
degree of efficiency, so that the physical, the 
intellectual, and the spiritual, being equally 
developed, may fit him for successful life serv- 
ice. 

Along with intellectual activity at the age 
of maturity, there often come doubts and skep- 
ticism; but if the pupil can be shielded from 
these until he is established in the faith, there 



98 HOW TO CONDUCT 

will be little danger of infidelity in after-life. 
Persons in this period might be supposed to 
need least attention; but the intellectual activ- 
ity, the physical energy, and the serious view 
of things make it thrice important that the 
pupil at this age should become thoroughly 
grounded in the fundamental principles of the 
Bible, for whatever he believes he is inclined 
to believe actively and permanently, and what- 
ever he does he is inclined to do energetically. 

THE ADULT PUPIL. 

To study the adult pupil is quite as neces- 
sary as to study the younger members of the 
Sunday-school. Because one is mature in 
years and in intellect, and even because one 
is mature and settled in spiritual things, is not 
sufficient reason for concluding that one can 
grasp a lesson presented in an illogical and 
disinteresting manner. From the beginners' 
class to the Bible-class there is an urgent need 
that the teachers study the laws of thought, 
the principles of psychology, and right methods 
of teaching. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 99 



II. PARTICULAR STUDY OF THE PUPIL. 

In addition to making a general study of 
the pupil, the teacher should make a particular 
study of each individual of the class. 

Why? Because, while there are general 
principles underlying the habits of thought, no 
two individuals are exactly alike; and, since 
the teacher should seek to make every lesson 
personal and to develop the pupil's individu- 
ality, he must of necessity make a personal 
study of each pupil. Although in one sense 
the class is a united whole, a unit, yet the 
teacher who makes the instructions general only 
and fails to conceive of the class as made up 
of different individuals of various ages, with 
different dispositions, environments, and habits, 
will never make a soul-winner. 

Where? In the school, in the class, at home, 
on the street, everywhere. 

When? On Sunday, during the week, any 
time. 

Horv? On account of varied circumstances 
no two teachers may study the child in exactly 



100 HOW TO CONDUCT 

the same way; but the energetic teacher will 
find a way through association with the child, 
acquaintance with its parents and home en- 
vironments, or some other means, to become ac- 
quainted with the disposition, habits, character, 
and needs of each member of the class. 

Importance. The importance of particular 
study of the child can not be overestimated. 
What an incalculable failure we make when 
we try to approach, to govern, and to teach 
children of every disposition in the same man- 
ner! The wise and sympathetic teacher will 
draw out the timid, soothe the nervous, encour- 
age the despondent, stimulate the slow, warn 
the untruthful, admonish the negligent, restrain 
the passionate, and conquer the obstinate. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 101 

CHAPTER V. 

THE LESSON. 

OBJECT. 
The object of every lesson, whether the 
lesson is from the Old Testament or the New, 
whether from history, prophecy, or epistles, 
should be Christ ; and the purpose of every les- 
son should be to lead the pupil to Christ. The 
great subjects of the Bible are God, man, 
Satan, sin, Savior, salvation, heaven, and hell. 
From the beginners' class to the adult class 
the pupils of the Sunday-school should be con- 
stantly led to the consideration of these vital 
subjects. It is not enough that the pupils of 
the Sunday-school be taught kindness, polite- 
ness, and morality; they must be taught the 
consequences of sin and the necessity of salva- 
tion. More than this, the pupils must be led 
to Christ; they must be saved. The object, 
then, of the Sunday-school lesson is not merely 
a moral and social one; its object is divine 
and spiritual. Hence the Sunday-school les- 



102 HOW TO CONDUCT 

son that fails to convey spiritual truth and to 
point the soul to Christ is left without an apol- 
ogy for its name. The lesson that succeeds in 
this object, though it may fail in some minor 
points, is still an abundant success. 

STUDYING THE LESSON. 

Remarkably few people know how to study 
a lesson. Teachers are constantly exhorting 
their pupils to study the lesson, and pupils are 
as constantly neglecting it. One great diffi- 
culty is that teachers seldom tell their pupils 
horv to study a lesson. In many instances, 
however, there is a good reason why teachers 
do not tell the pupils how to study the les- 
son; many teachers are themselves ignorant of 
the principles governing thorough study. 

Not everybody may employ the same method 
of study, but everybody should have some 
definite method. A poor plan is better than 
none, but the best is none too good. There- 
fore use the best method you have; never at- 
tempt to study the lesson without a definite 
plan and purpose. Not all lessons may be de- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 103 

veloped by the same method; the method best 
suited to the development of a given lesson may 
sometimes be discovered only after much ef- 
fort. 

While every teacher should develop his own 
method of study, a few general suggestions 
may be productive of thought. A valuable 
plan for study is: (1) read the lesson, (2) 
make an outline of the lesson, (3) meditate 
upon the lesson, (4) pray about the lesson. 

Reading the Lesson, The place to begin 
the lesson is at the lesson itself. To form pre- 
conceived ideas and then attempt so to mold 
the lesson as to make it agree with one's ideas 
is a method that is as wrong as it is com- 
mon. The object of reading the lesson care- 
fully is to get it as a whole impressed upon 
the mind. After one has grasped the lesson 
as a whole, then one should begin to analyze, 
to divide, and subdivide. 

Maying an Outline. The ability, after read- 
ing a lesson, to make a synopsis of it, to re- 
duce it to a logical outline, is one of the most 
valuable accomplishments. To attempt giv- 



104 HOW TO CONDUCT 

ing an outline that would suit every teacher and 
apply to every lesson would be impractical, but 
I have found the following outline to represent 
a valuable method of study. 
I. Characters. 



(a) Birth and early life. 

(b) Moral condition. 

(c) Religious position. 

(d) Part acted in this lesson. 



(a), 
(b). 
(c). 
(d) 



II. Places. 
1. 



2.. 



(a) Location. 

(b) Religious history. 

(c) Political history. 

(a'ylZZI 

(b) 

(c).... 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 105 

III. Events. 

1. Moral quality. 

2. Causes. 

3. Effects. 

IV. The purpose of God. 

1 . In permitting. 

2. In commanding. 

3. In doing. 

V. Application. 

1. To ourselves. 

2. To the professed Christian 

churches. 

3. To the non-Christian world. 
Gathering Materials. After the lesson has 

been read and reduced to an outline, the next 
step is to gather materials. The principal 
sources from which materials are to be gathered 
for the development of the lesson are the text 
itself, the context, parallel texts, the observa- 
tion of nature, and human experience. 

The Law of Selection. The teacher who 
is an industrious student will always gather 
more materials than are needed. Hence the 
need of selection. In selecting the materials 



106 HOW TO CONDUCT 

to be used in the development of the lesson, we 
are governed by three considerations: impor- 
tance, harmony, and suggestiveness. Thoughts 
and ideas are important in the degree that they 
conform to the central idea of the lesson; har- 
monious when they do not contradict any other 
thought or idea in the lesson; and suggestive 
when they illustrate the lesson. 

Filling in the Outline. It is not enough to 
make a good outline; the outline must be filled 
in with living truths. Each point must be 
proved, must be illustrated from nature or 
from human experience, must be explained and 
applied first to the teacher's own heart and 
then to the student. A lesson without a defi- 
nite and logical outline lacks unity and force; 
but an outline, however good, not properly 
filled in is too formal to create interest and 
reach the heart. The former method, or rather 
lack of method, may, by giving vent to care- 
less, rambling thoughts, entertain a class not 
accustomed to methodical thinking; but the 
truths thus presented will be soon forgotten. 
On the other hand, a bare outline, though it 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 107 

may be easily remembered, lacks the power 
to awaken the emotions and to move the heart. 
A lesson clearly outlined and properly filled in 
will both lastingly impress the memory and 
stir the heart to devotion and duty. 

Meditation. Some one has said that medita- 
tion is a lost art. Whether a lost art or an 
unattained one, comparatively few persons are 
able to concentrate the mind upon a given sub- 
ject for any considerable length of time. If 
you doubt this statement, try to concentrate 
your mind upon one thing, to think of nothing 
else, for only ten minutes. It is perfectly easy 
for a great many persons to pray, to ask God 
for the supply of all their needs and for the 
needs of the whole world; but to be still, to 
silently meditate, and to allow the Holy Spirit 
to speak to the soul is for some, unfortunately, 
more difficult. The teacher who after pre- 
paring the lesson fails to meditate upon it, to 
think it over again and again, to allow it to 
burn into his inmost soul, must be content with 
an inferior degree of success. Meditation di- 
gests the lesson and makes it the teacher's very 



108 HOW TO CONDUCT 

own. He can then give it out, not as inco- 
herent fragments gathered from books and bor- 
rowed from others, but as a cemented whole, 
stamped with his own personality. He can 
then bring the truths forth, not merely from his 
memory, but from his own heart, What comes 
from the heart will then go to the heart, the 
mind will be impressed and the soul moved. 

Prayer. Meditation and prayer are closely 
allied and often intermingled, but prayer is 
more than meditation. Prayer is the expres- 
sion to God in thought or in words, of the 
heart's desires. One may meditate without 
praying or pray without meditating, yet some- 
times the two seem to fuse and one's medita- 
tion becomes prayer and one's prayer, medita- 
tion. Meditation can not take the place of 
prayer, nor prayer the place of meditation. 
One should not excuse one's self from regular 
habits of prayer or from stealing off alone and 
kneeling in prayer by substituting meditation. 
The successful teacher will read the lesson and 
reread it, reduce it to a logical outline, fill in 
that outline with Bible truth and fitting illus- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 109 

trations, meditate upon it till it leaves its full 
impress upon the soul, but still will not neglect 
to pray. 

QUALITIES OF A GOOD LESSON. 

Unity. The first requisite of a good lesson 
is that it have one definite leading thought about 
which all other thoughts group themselves and 
to which all other thoughts contribute. Many 
teachers make the mistake of undertaking to 
teach too much. One simple thought clearly 
presented and definitely impressed is worth a 
dozen ideas so inadequately dealt with as to 
leave a vague and uncertain impression. Other 
teachers permit the class to drag them into 
the sea of confusion and to overwhelm them 
with a multitude of incoherent ideas foreign 
to the central idea of the lesson. Many a 
lesson is spoiled by the introduction of thoughts 
foreign to the central theme. To do one thing 
at a time and to do that well is incomparably 
better than to attempt everything at once and 
accomplish nothing. The first and indispen- 
sable duty of a teacher is to stick to the sub- 



110 HOW TO CONDUCT 

ject himself and to see that the class do not 
spend the hour in discussing every subject to be 
found from Genesis to Revelation. 

Brevity. Teachers are inclined to overesti- 
mate the thinking and the retentive capacity of 
the pupils. A student can grasp only a certain 
amount at a time; therefore all attempts to 
teach him beyond the limits of his capacity are 
futile. Crowding or overloading not only 
wastes time and energy, but scatters the 
thoughts that he might otherwise grasp and 
leaves him with a vague conception of the 
lesson. Many a boy and girl dreads the class- 
hour merely because the teacher is tedious and 
tiresome. The good teacher will have some- 
thing definite to say, say it, and then close. 
The class should never be held to the point of 
weariness. Far better close too soon than hold 
a class too long. An interested scholar is more 
likely to come again than one fatigued and 
wearied. 

Clearness. Teachers should bear in mind 
that the gerat majority of people are not phil- 
osophers and logicians. Moreover, most peo- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Ill 

pie in the common walks of life are unaccus- 
tomed even to methodical thinking, and there- 
fore they should not be expected to think as 
clearly and to acquire as quickly as one with 
a trained mind. This fact should impress the 
teacher with the necessity of presenting the 
lesson clearly and simply. Seldom is a les- 
son made too clear and simple, but frequently 
it is left vague and confusing. 

Proportion. Not infrequently one part of 
a lesson receives undue attention to the neglect 
of all other parts. This lack of proportion is 
not easily avoided, but it is nevertheless de- 
structive to a thorough comprehension of the 
lesson. The time and attention devoted to 
the several parts or phases of the lesson should 
be governed by the relative importance of the 
parts. The effective teacher will not dwell 
nor permit the class to dwell unduly upon a 
comparatively unimportant point, lest there be 
not sufficient time for the consideration of the 
more important parts of the lesson. Timeli- 
ness, or existing needs, may sometimes affect 
proportion. Under different circumstances, 



112 HOW TO CONDUCT 

therefore, the same lesson may, on account 
of existing needs, be dealt with differently with 
respect to proportion. 

Repetition. When resulting from careless 
thinking, repetition is worse than useless; it is 
a wearisome hindrance. When, however, 
repetition is employed judiciously, it is an aid; 
first, to the understanding, and, secondly, to 
the memory. Skilled teachers repeat and re- 
quire the pupils to repeat the leading truths of 
the lesson. For the younger pupils the lesson 
should contain one or two simple truths and 
these should be frequently repeated. The les- 
son will then be long remembered. 

Climax. Climax means an upward move, 
steady increase, the highest point. An other- 
wise excellent lesson is often spoiled by al- 
lowing it to run down at the close. Every 
point of a lesson should be strong, but the logi- 
cal and most effective order is to begin with the 
least important point and gradually increase 
or ascend till the highest point is reached at the 
close of the lesson. This is most effectually 
accomplished by the use of the art of sum- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 113 

marizing. The ability to recapitulate, to gather 
up the principal truths of a lesson and weave 
them into a solid unit, is an accomplishment 
much to be coveted. 

APPLICATION OF THE LESSON. 

A lesson may possess every quality of a good 
lesson, with respect both to its subject matter 
and to its arrangement, and yet fail of its in- 
tended purpose, for lack of practical, personal 
application. The teacher should see that he 
has sufficient time left in which to gather up 
the moral and spiritual truths of the lesson and 
to press them home. The effect of many an 
otherwise good lesson is all but lost because 
the teacher does not possess the ability to sum 
up the conclusion of the class discussion and of 
his own comments and to state them in a few 
pointed words. The summary, or the state- 
ment of the conclusion and its application to 
the heart, is the finishing-touch to the picture, 
the final setting of the diamond. 



114 HOW TO CONDUCT 



PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING. 
Order. The first principle of successful 
teaching, if it may be classed as such, is order. 
Until every pupil of the class is under perfect 
subjection and until quiet prevails, an attempt 
at teaching is all but useless. Whatever method 
the teacher employs, whether persuasion, ad- 
monition, reward, or compulsion, order must 
be effected. More than this, it must be, by 
whatever method, effected by a spirit of kind- 
ness and interest; the pupil must be made to 
feel that he is corrected for his own benefit, 
as well as for the benefit of the entire class. 
Though under some circumstances it may be dif- 
ficult and, indeed, to some it may seem para- 
doxical, to employ at the same time both firm- 
ness and kindness, yet such is the only success- 
ful method. Not to be firm means to allow 
disorder, and to be unkind means to lose the 
confidence of the pupil and to close his heart 
to the truths you have to teach. Confidence 
must be retained, for without it successful teach- 
ing is impossible; and yet order must be ob- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 115 

tained, for it is the first principle of success. 

Attention. "Attention is consciousness and 
something more. It is consciousness voluntarily 
applied, under its laws and limitations, to some 
determinate object; it is consciousness concen- 
trated." — Sir W. Hamilton. Attention is of 
three kinds: voluntary, involuntary, and ex- 
pectant. Voluntary attention, as the word sug- 
gests, is that kind in which the will directs the 
faculties upon something to be considered; it 
is attention volunteered by choice of the one 
giving attention. Involuntary attention, on the 
contrary, is that kind in which the mind is 
drawn by interest or our consideration of 
something. Anything that excites our inter- 
est or our curiosity produces involuntary at- 
tention. Expectant attention is that kind of at- 
tention produced by expectation, whether the 
thing expected creates dread or desire. 

Without attention, all effort at teaching is 
fruitless. Involuntary attention is that upon 
which the teacher must depend for the most 
part. Children, and for that matter a consid- 
erable majority of adults, can not, for any 



116 HOW TO CONDUCT 

great length of time, give voluntary attention. 
The power to excite and hold attention must, 
for most people, come from without, because 
only the most powerful and highly trained 
mind is capable of applying itself constantly 
and steadily to one line of work. Object-les- 
sons are, particularly for children, highly valu- 
able in exciting interest and holding atten- 
tion. 

Expectant attention may be made good use 
of by the Sunday-school teacher. If the pupils 
come to school apprehending a long, tiresome 
session and a dull, tedious lesson, the teacher 
will have difficulty in exciting interest and in 
holding attention ; but if the pupils come antici- 
pating a pleasurable hour and an interesting les- 
son, the teacher can easily get their attention. 
There is but one successful way to create this 
expectancy. When Cyrus the Great was 
placed at the head of the Persian army, his 
father said to him, "Always make your men 
believe that you know what should be done." 
"How shall I succeed under all circumstances 
in hiding my ignorance and in making them be- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 117 

lieve that I know?" His father's laconic an- 
swer was, "Know." 

Since there can be no successful teaching 
without interest, and no interest without atten- 
tion, it follows that attention is of prime im- 
portance. 

Apperception. Apperception has been de- 
fined as "the grasping or clasping of one thing 
to another; figuratively, it means to see or per- 
ceive one thing by way of another." It is 
similar to Gregory's law, "The truth to be 
taught must be learned through the truth al- 
ready known." Roark says: "A concept hav- 
ing been once formed, all objects observed to 
have the properties from which the concept is 
made up are immediately classed with the con- 
cept already formed. Thus, if I have the 
concept fern, all new objects having the attri- 
butes entering into my concept are classed as 
ferns. 

"If any new thing be perceived, the mind 
at once tries to assimilate it (make it similar) 
to some concept already acquired. It is said 
the natives of one of the South Sea Islands, 



118 HOW TO CONDUCT 

who were familiar with sheep but had never 
seen a hog, called the first porker brought to 
their shores a 'grunting sheep.' The concept 
sheep was the one which the percept of the 
hog most nearly resembled. This spontaneous 
act of the mind in immediately seeking some- 
thing in its store of ideas with which to classify 
a new idea, is sometimes called apperception, 
the translation and interpretation of the new 
in terms of the known." Apperception, then, 
is the act of comparing and classifying new ob- 
jects or ideas by means of those already known. 
The extent to which new ideas are conceived 
from experience is governed by knowledge al- 
ready attained. Illustrative of this fact is the 
story of a man who stood behind a tree and 
overheard the remarks of the passers-by: "The 
first man to pass remarked that the tree would 
cut into a large pile of lumber ; another noticed 
that the bark was of the very best quality; a 
third mentioned the fact that its branches af- 
forded a fine shelter for birds' and squirrels' 
nests; and a fourth spoke of its symmetry of 
outline and its grateful shade. . . . You see, no 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 119 

two of them formed the same percept of this 
one object. All perceived it in relation to the 
common, every-day experiences of their past 
lives — apperceived it." — Buell. 

The importance of this principle becomes 
apparent when we consider that we can teach 
a pupil nothing except by means of that which 
he already knows. The recognition of this 
principle will also accentuate the necessity of 
knowing each pupil individually. Avoid the 
common error of using terms and illustrations 
which, though familiar to the speaker, may 
be strange to the hearers. The teacher that 
has been reared on the farm is inclined to il- 
lustrate his ideas by his own experiences — 
plowing, sowing, reaping — regardless of the 
knowledge of his pupils. Likewise, a teacher 
familiar with some other occupation is liable 
to make the same mistake of presenting the 
truth so it is perfectly clear to him, but per- 
fectly obscure to some one whose experience 
and education have not been along the same 
line as those of the teacher. 

Dr. A. H. McKinney gives the following 



120 HOW TO CONDUCT 

illustration of an unsuccessful attempt to illus- 
trate the love of God without recognizing and 
applying this principle of apperception: "I 
had taught the class for about six weeks, and 
had gotten on well with all the boys except one, 
who was about thirteen years of age, and who 
seemed to be interested in the topic of the 
day until the time came for making the per- 
sonal application. For example, the thought 
was, 'God is love.' I wished to illustrate it, 
and I would say to my boy : 'Albert, God loves 
you. He loves you more than your father loves 
you.' Then there came into the boy's eye a 
look that I could not understand. It was hard 
and cold. Sometimes there was a sneer on his 
face, and I imagined that my boy did not care 
to learn about the love of God. 

"One Sunday afternoon he was absent from 
the class, and the next morning I was irresist- 
ibly impelled to visit his home. On entering 
the room in the rear tenement, to my surprise 
I found that the boy was there instead of at 
school. His mother, was very silent and re- 
served. After repeated efforts to engage her 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 121 

in conversation I said to myself, 'That is what 
is the matter with Albert; he takes after his 
mother.' But the Spirit said to me, 'That is 
not all ; there is some other reason for the boy's 
actions.' So I chatted as pleasantly as I could 
to the woman, who responded in monosyllables. 
Suddenly, without any apparent cause, she 
burst out weeping, and said: 'Don't be hard 
on my boy.' I replied: 'I am not hard on your 
boy ; I love him. That is the reason I am here 
this morning instead of being at my work.' 

"Again I went on talking, while the woman 
merely said yes or no, as occasion demanded. 
Again, apparently without any reason, she 
burst out crying. When she could control her- 
self she said: 'I must tell somebody; I may as 
well tell you as anybody else. My boy and 
I spent the night out in that area way, and his 
father was in this room crazy drunk, threaten- 
ing to kill us with a bread knife if either of 
us came into the room.' Then it was as if the 
heavens had opened to give me light. I had 
been trying to teach the boy that God loved 
him, and had foolishly illustrated that love by 



122 HOW TO CONDUCT 

a father's love. He had no father. A brute 
lived in the same house with him. Was it any 
wonder that he did not want God's love? Af- 
terward, however, when I could take my boy 
aside and say to him, 'Albert, God loves you 
more than your mother loves you,' he under- 
stood just what I meant, and responded to my 
teachings. 

"That God is love is a grand truth; but 
that we are illustrating that truth in the right 
way is a question. Perhaps some with whom 
we have to deal do not know of the love of 
God because of our lack of wisdom in present- 
ing that love. The principle of apperception 
will help us here as elsewhere." 

Correlation. Correlation is defined by the 
Century Dictionary as "reciprocal relation; 
interdependence, or interconnection." W. R. 
Grove, as quoted by the same work, says, "The 
term correlation . . . strictly interpreted means 
a necessary, mutual, or reciprocal dependence 
of two ideas, inseparable even in mental con- 
ception; thus, the idea of height can not ex- 
ist without involving the idea of its correlate, 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 123 

depth ; the idea of parents can not exist without 
involving the idea of offspring." Thus we 
would say, height and depth, parent and child, 
are correlated terms. The act of correlation, 
then, is the bringing together of things or ideas 
that are reciprocal or related. For illustra- 
tion, the several parts of a watch scattered 
about on a jeweler's bench are correctable, 
or capable of being correlated, and when the 
jeweler puts them together in their respective 
positions, he correlates them. 

The teacher who would impress the mind 
of the pupil must have a clear conception of 
correlation and allow only correlated thoughts 
and ideas to enter into the lesson, thus creating 
unity of thought and impressing the pupil 
deeply with one clear, definite idea. It is bet- 
ter to teach one truth in a lesson and teach 
it well, so that it will be remembered after- 
ward and be of practical value, than to pre- 
sent many unrelated truths and ideas and 
cause the student to forget all. Suppose, for 
instance, the lesson to be Christ's suffering in 
Gethsemane. The location of the garden, the 



124 HOW TO CONDUCT 

darkness of the night, the seeming indifference 
of the disciples, Judas' contracting with the 
high priests to betray Jesus, thoughts of the 
coming crucifixion, the rabble coming to take 
him, are all related ideas; but such as Christ's 
Sermon on the Mount, his healing the lepers, 
and his resurrection, though they are of great 
importance, are quite unrelated to his suffering 
in Gethsemane and hence should not be dis- 
cussed in connection with the lesson. Recog- 
nition of the principle of correlation will pre- 
vent the waste of much time and energy, and 
will make our Sunday-school lessons more in- 
teresting and more profitable. 

Just as the ideas of each lesson should be 
correlated, so each lesson should bear a rela- 
tion to the preceding one and to the following 
ones. Hence the necessity of constantly re- 
viewing and of calling attention to the next 
lesson and its relation to the present one. "No 
fact standing alone is valuable; only as its re- 
lations to other facts are perceived can it be 
understood and made use of. This truth must 
be kept in mind in arranging every course of 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 125 

study, in planning every exercise, in conduct- 
ing every recitation." The great atonement 
of Christ can be appreciated only when it is 
brought into relation with human needs. 

Concentration. "The act of collecting or 
combining into or about a central point; the 
act of directing or applying to one object." 
— Century Dictionary. It is not enough that 
the several parts of the lesson should be corre- 
lated; they must be concentrated, or collected 
and combined about one central point. This 
central point, or main object of the lesson, the 
teacher should keep clearly and constantly in 
mind, so that he may state it at will. In other 
words, the teacher should endeavor to accom- 
plish a definite purpose by every lesson, and 
every lesson should have one leading idea, to 
which all other ideas should be related, sub- 
ordinated, and concentrated. Take, for ex- 
ample, the lessons of the good Samaritan. The 
topography of the road from Jerusalem to Jeri- 
cho, the robbers, the priests, the Levites, and 
the Samaritans are all subjects related to the 
central idea of the lesson and may therefore 



126 HOW TO CONDUCT 

be discussed with propriety; but the teacher 
should not leave them disconnected like the 
wheels of a torn-up watch lying about on a 
jeweler's bench, but should gather them up, 
subordinate them to and concentrate them upon 
the one leading idea — "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." 

Questioning. The ability to ask questions is 
one of the first qualifications of a good teacher. 
Though to some it may not seem like an art, 
yet the ability to ask the right question at the 
right time and in the right place is a most de- 
sirable art. Questioning accomplishes three 
things: First, it leads the scholar to define his 
knowledge. By defining his knowledge he 
fixes it in his own mind and reveals to his 
teacher the extent of his knowledge. Second, 
it leads the scholar to see the limitations 
of his own knowledge and thus gives him 
a starting-point for further instruction. Third, 
it leads him to be discontented with his own 
ignorance and thus gives him an impetus to 
advance. Questions should be carefully pre- 
pared for these three ends. 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 127 

The teaching method is an interlocutory dis- 
course in which both the teacher and the pupil 
ask and answer questions. The ability to ask 
questions, therefore, is quite as important to 
the teacher as is the ability to answer them. 

Telling. Questioning has its limits, for it 
can only bring out of the mind what is al- 
ready there. The teacher must communicate 
new truths or must direct where they may be 
found. Personal talks, lectures, text-books, 
and reading lie within this method. 

Illustrating. The art of illustrating is one 
to be coveted. There are two general ways of 
illustrating: the one by word-pictures, anec- 
dotes, or stories; the other by object-lessons, 
drawings, and experiments. The general re- 
quirements of an illustration are that it be fit- 
ting, clear, and dignified. Crude and ludicrous 
illustrations should not be associated with holy 
things. The ability to tell an interesting Bible- 
story or to make an apt illustration is one of 
the teacher's most useful arts. 



128 HOW TO CONDUCT 



CHAPTER VI. 

METHODS AND EQUIPMENTS. 

The methods and the equipments of the 
modern Sunday-school are all but innumerable. 
All that I shall attempt here is to give a few 
suggestions concerning the most common meth- 
ods and equipments. Many of the methods 
employed by Sunday-schools in general are 
productive of good fruit; others are pernicious 
in their effect. Sunday-school workers are ad- 
vised to study carefully all methods, but to 
employ only those of undoubted merit. 

METHODS. 

Rewards. Rewards are used in various ways 
to create and maintain an interest in the Sun- 
day-school. A reward given for regular at- 
tendance or for efficiency can certainly do no 
harm and will often do much good ; but rewards 
that cause competition may often do more harm 
than good, by causing rivalry, jealousy, and 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 129 

envy. If employed at all, competitive rewards 
should be managed carefully. Sometimes the 
bad effects otherwise produced by such rewards 
may be averted by giving a prize to each pupil. 
The method of giving a small ticket to each 
scholar every Sunday as a certificate of at- 
tendance and an attractive card at the end of 
the quarter to those who have been in attend- 
ance every Sunday has been employed with 
considerable success. This may be carried 
still further by offering a book or some other 
reward at the end of the year to those who can 
show four quarterly cards for the year. This 
plan, like all others, may be modified and 
varied from time to time to suit existing con- 
ditions and thereby be made almost an end- 
less source of interest and attraction. 

Entertainments. The Sunday-school is not 
primarily a place of entertainment. It is a 
place to learn about God and holy things, and 
therefore worldly entertainments and amuse- 
ments should not be brought into the Sun- 
day-school room. The singing of special hymns 
and of Sunday-school songs, the reciting of 



130 HOW TO CONDUCT 

Scriptural verses, the relating of Bible-stories, 
quarterly and annual reviews of the Sunday- 
school lesson, and similar entertainments, if, 
indeed, they may be called such, may be con- 
ducted with profit. No entertainment, how- 
ever, unless it has a religious and spiritual end, 
is to be advised for the Sunday-school. 

Securing Nen> Scholars. Many schemes are 
employed in securing new scholars. Rewards 
are offered to the scholar who will secure the 
greatest number of new attendants; different 
inducements are offered to new pupils; and 
methods too numerous to mention here are con- 
stantly being employed. The best way to se- 
cure attendance is to create a missionary spirit 
in the Sunday-school. Induce officers, teach- 
ers, and pupils to visit their neighbors and in- 
vite them to the Sunday-school. Then make 
the Sunday-school a desirable place on account 
of its social atmosphere, its brilliant lessons, 
and, above all, its spiritual influence. 

Holding Attendance. As in securing at- 
tendance, so in holding it, the main power 
of the Sunday-school lies not in its ex- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 131 

ternal methods but in its power over the hearts 
and minds of its members. Although the first 
object of the Sunday-school is not interest but 
profit, yet profit without interest is seldom, if 
ever, possible. The most interesting Sunday- 
school, it is true, is not always the most profit- 
able one ; but if interest is used only as a means 
for the accomplishment of a higher end, it is 
of undoubted value. Whatever methods may 
be employed to create an interest and yet leave 
no bad effects are to be commended, but 
methods that lead the minds of the scholars 
away from Christ and the church and to the 
world are to be strongly condemned. 

Visitation is one of the best ways to revive 
the interest of a delinquent scholar. The per- 
sonal influence of a soul-burdened teacher is 
so powerful that few scholars can withstand 
it. People, both old and young, like to feel 
that somebody cares for them. The best way 
to get a careless student interested in himself 
and his own welfare is to make him feel that 
you are interested. To visit each scholar ev- 
ery time he is absent is not always possible; 



132 HOW TO CONDUCT 

but when visitation is impossible, other methods 
should be employed to express the teacher's 
interest and desire that the student continue his 
attendance. A post-card bearing some simple 

message like, "We miss you," signed, " 

class, Sunday-school," 

will often awaken an interest in a delinquent 
pupil and bring him back to the school next 
Sunday. The Sunday-school, like every other 
good institution, has to contend with the combined 
opposition of the evil bent of human nature, 
the evil of the world, and the power of Satan. 
Therefore the leaders of the Sunday-school 
must be tireless and persistent. The Sunday- 
school will not run itself and keep a large at- 
tendance; to keep its class-rooms full and its 
interest fervent requires the time, the atten- 
tion, and the interest of devoted workers. 

Missionary Interests, In the Sunday-school, 
as in the church, the life of the work is a mis- 
sionary spirit; and just as pastors should lead 
the church in its conquest of the world for 
Christ, so superintendents should lead the Sun- 
day-school. The Sunday-school should begin 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 133 

its missionary work at home by attempting to 
bring into the school every man, woman, and 
child in the neighborhood. The missionary ef- 
forts should not stop at home, however, but 
should extend to non-Christian countries. Ev- 
ery Sunday-school that possibly can do so 
should take the responsibility of supporting or 
of partly supporting a missionary. Missionary 
day once a month, or once every three months, 
with a missionary collection, the reading of 
letters from missionaries, or of sketches from 
missionary biographies, the exhibition of pic- 
tures of missionaries and of places in mission- 
ary lands, and many other like things, should 
be numbered among the methods of a progres- 
sive and spiritual Sunday-school. No Chris- 
tion institution, whether a Sunday-school or a 
church, can maintain a high degree of spir- 
ituality without a deep interest in the salvation 
of others and a heart-devotion to missionary 
work. 

No other methods are so successful as those 
born of the mind of a diligent worker and of 
necessity. If, then, we have diligent workers, 



134 HOW TO CONDUCT 

we shall undoubtedly discover necessities, and 
from these will be born the methods best suited 
to our schools and most effective in the accom- 
plishment of our needs. 

EQUIPMENTS. 

Not every school is able to afford ideal 
equipments. It is desirable, of course, to have 
conveniently arranged Sunday-school rooms, 
but this is not always possible, and in many in- 
stances, therefore, we shall have to make the 
best of such buildings as we have. In the 
erection of new buildings, however, the con- 
venience of the Sunday-school should receive 
due consideration. A separate room for each 
class, though desirable, may not always be 
possible, but separate rooms should be pro- 
vided for at least the primary classes. 

There are a few minor equipments that are 
quite indispensable to a good school. These 
are quite inexpensive and therefore almost any 
energetic school may have them. 

Literature. Literature is one of the most 
necessary equipments. Tickets, cards and 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 135 

large picture-charts for the primary department 
add much to the entertainment as well as to 
the instruction of the little folks. Quarterlies, 
lesson helps, reference books, maps, Bibles, and 
Testaments, I should place among the indis- 
pensable equipments for the older classes. The 
quarterlies and the lesson helps have undoubt- 
edly proved their value to all who have given 
them a fair trial. They supply matter that is 
inaccessible to those not having large libraries. 
Reference books, such as an English diction- 
ary, a Bible dictionary, and a good encyclope- 
dia, are an encouragment to thorough study. 
They should be kept in the Sunday-school li- 
brary where the scholars may consult them be- 
fore and after the school session. A good set 
of large maps hung in the main Sunday-school 
room is useful in the review to hold attention 
and to fix in the mind the location of the les- 
son. Extra Bibles and Testaments and a few 
extra quarterlies to supply visitors and others 
are always convenient. A few good religious 
pictures for the primary rooms and some appro- 
priate Scriptural mottos for the main room add 



136 HOW TO CONDUCT 

to the attraction of the Sunday-school rooms. 

The secretary and the treasurer should be 
well supplied with the necessary blank or rec- 
ord books. These should be made of good 
material and should be well bound so as to 
stand usage. 

The Blackboard. The use of the blackboard 
in the Sunday-school is invaluable. The main 
Sunday-school room and, if possible, every 
class should be supplied with some kind of a 
blackboard. By means of a few strokes on the 
blackboard a lesson can frequently be made 
clear more quickly than in any other way. 
Teachers who have not the ability to use the 
blackboard would do well to take a few simple 
lessons in illustrating. 

The Sunday-school Library. A good Sun- 
day-school library composed of books suited 
to all ages can not be acquired in a day, but 
every school should begin to collect books as 
soon as it becomes a school. Care should 
be taken to see that the books placed in the 
library are suitable. At least three of the of- 
ficers and teachers of the school, and, if pos- 



A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 137 

sible, the pastor, should read every book be- 
fore it is placed on the shelves. To give a list 
of books suited to every school would be im- 
possible, but the following list of subjects may 
be helpful. 



Biography 


Bible-stories 


History 


Music 


Poetry 


Sunday-school books 


Science 


Animals 


Art 


Nature 


Travels 


Religions 


Missions 


Children's books 


Ethics 


on various subjects. 


Philanthrophy 





Many other equipments such as chairs and 
other furniture might be enumerated, but their 
need is too obvious to require detailed men- 
tion. Such minor equipments as crayon, pen- 
cil, and paper, and many other little things 
for the primary department will suggest them- 
selves to teacher and superintendent. It is not 
the great number of equipments after all that 
makes the good Sunday-school, but the diligent 



138 HOW TO CONDUCT 

use of such equipment as we have. The teacher 
who can not make a small success with a few 
equipments is not likely to make great success 
with all the equipments that could be supplied 
him. Equipments are a great assistance, but 
they are not the only prerequisites to a good 
school. 



MAR 15 1913 



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